'Jl'tc^^ 
 
 CHINA JIM 
 
 BEING INCIDENTS AND .AD- 
 VENTURES IN THE LIFE OF AN 
 INDIAN MUTINY VETERAN 
 
 MAJOR GENERAL J. T. HARRIS 
 

 OJacneU Hniupratty IGibtarg 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 479.1.H31 
 
 China Jim ibeinq incidents and adventur 
 
 3 1924 023 223 880 
 
 datp: due '■ " 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://archive.org/details/cu31924023223880 
 
"CHINA JIM 
 
 
 'hi 
 
WAR AND ITS ALLEGED 
 BENEFITS 
 
 By J. NOVIKOW 
 
 Vice-President of the International Institute 
 of Sociology. 
 
 With a Preface by Norman Angell 
 Author of ' ' The Great Illusion " 
 
 In one volume, cr. 8vo, price 2S 6d net. 
 
 " The book ought to be distributed all over 
 the modern world of armaments and ' great 
 illusions'." — Daily Mirror. 
 
 r- 
 
 LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN. 
 
X 
 
 /. u^ 
 
 Uj\>uj-A 
 
"CHINA JIM" 
 
 BEING INCIDENTS AND AD- 
 VENTURES IN THE LIFE OF AN 
 INDIAN MUTINY VETERAN 
 
 BY 
 MAJOR-GENERAL J. T. HARRIS 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT 
 
 LONDON 
 WILLIAM HEINEMANN 
 
 MCMXII 
 
Copyright igi2 
 
TO 
 
 MY DEAR WIFE ELIZABETH 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS 
 BOOK 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THIS book is not intended in any 
 way to represent History. So 
 many excellent and detailed ac- 
 counts have been written of the 
 Indian Mutiny by Lord Roberts and others, 
 and of the China Campaign by ' Lord 
 Wolseley, &c., that I feel it would ill 
 become me, even if I were able, to enter 
 into any sort of competition with such well- 
 known authorities and authors. On the 
 contrary, all that I have set down in these 
 pages is a true account of such episodes and 
 events as have come within my own personal 
 experience, and this only at the oft-repeated 
 request of my many friends and acquaint- 
 ances. 
 
 With reference to the name " China Jim " 
 — after my return from China, in 1861, I 
 found myself constantly addressed and spoken 
 of by this sobriquet ; possibly because I got 
 more valuable "loot" from the Summer 
 Palace than any other man in the force. 
 Moreover, the amount that I did get was very 
 much exaggerated, so that I was erroneously 
 supposed by many of my friends to have 
 
 vii 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 made an enormous fortune. Hence the title 
 of this book. 
 
 I am getting on in life and shall be eighty 
 years of age in May next, and it has given 
 me a certain amount of pleasure and occupa- 
 tion to put down for those who are interested 
 what may seem to others a somewhat egotis- 
 tical record. Yet I venture to think that we 
 are all more or less egotists at heart. But in 
 the Great Human Family there are always 
 some who respond in harmony to our little 
 note of humour, sentiment, pathos, love of 
 adventure, or what not — and to such I 
 appeal. 
 
 J. H. 
 
 viu 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 My youth : Voyage to India : Learning to ride : 
 Stannus Fraser and my pony Mutton : Bannatyne 
 Macleod : To Rangoon on a transport : Cocicroaches : 
 In charge of the Government elephants at Po-dongmew : 
 Wc start for Mindoon : A very reticent tiger Pp. 1-14 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The tailing of Mindoon ■ A curious fish : Fever and 
 ague : A trip to Rangoon : MacDowall's treatment for 
 a recalcitrant woman : Invalided home : A generous 
 offer from an American Pp. 1 5-22 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 I return to India : Rumours of the Mutiny : We march 
 to Umballa : Our march to Delhi : Want of sleep : 
 Anger of the Europeans : My first action and sensations 
 during it : Flagstaff Tower . We take the Ridge : 
 Chichester and I go to inspect a battery Pp. 23-33 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 On the Ridge : A narrow shave ; Cowards : Another 
 near shave : Reinforcing Hindoo Rao's picket : Utter 
 exhaustion Pp. 34-39 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Despondency and its cure : Defending the vegetable 
 market : Wounded : My attempt to reach Rao's 
 picket : A dangerous position : An invalid : A trying 
 journey : Nerves : In a patent apparatus Pp. 40-49 
 
 b ix 
 
CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 An expedition through the hill States : Frost-bite and 
 snow-blindness : An avalanche : For once I get the 
 better of Lord William Hay Pp. S°-S^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Young "bloods" : A risky ride : Ill-feeling : I win 
 some money and lose it again Pp- 57~°' 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Digging for treasure in Delhi . Prize auctions : I gain 
 some valuable knowledge • The old King and his habits : 
 On leave : Richard Shebbeare : I join the 15th Punjabees : 
 Our journey to Lucknow : Examinations : The Nana 
 and a letter to W. H. Fitchett Pp. 62-71 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Faizabad : The Fakir and his powers : Back to Lucknow : 
 Ordered to China : Irritating delays : A quick steamer : 
 Lively times at Singapore : Arrival in China : A sharp 
 but brief dispute : Wolseley : In clover : Feats of 
 strength Oysters Pp. 72-81 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Peh-tang : A comfortable rut : The Government pawn- 
 broking establishment : Mud : We take the Taku 
 Forts Pp. 82-87 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 On the way to Pekin • The French General in danger : 
 The punishment that failed • My first experience of 
 looting : Tientsin Capture of guns ■ Treating for 
 peace : Treachery • Attacking the enemy : A clump 
 of Tartars : A slap in the face ■ My report and its 
 fate Pp. 88-100 
 
 X 
 
CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Peace and prisoners : The shops of Pekin : A French 
 officer and his loot : A wonderful watch : Bargaining 
 with the Frenchman : Pearls of small and great 
 price Pp. lol-lio 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 On a looting expedition : Another watch : Baskets of 
 loot : The prize fund : Burning the palace : Gold, and 
 my way of securing it 111-121 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 I return to the palace and get more loot : Edmund 
 Ward's story : A piece of bad luck Pp. 122-127 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Our march back to Tientsin : Gunboats and language : 
 A terrific gale : An unsuccessful attempt to attract 
 pirates : Turtle-fishing Pp. 128-134 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Long leave : My marriage and honeymoon : An amusing 
 landlord : Roulette at Baden-Baden : My luck : The 
 Brazilian : Homburg : Married life : Reorganisation of 
 the Indian Army : We go to Calcutta Pp. 135-144 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 An unsatisfactory interview : A swindle : Kindness of 
 the Viceroy : More interviews : Barrackpore : The 
 great cyclone Pp. 145-154 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 At Dorunda : G. : March to Ferozepore : Quarrels and 
 plain speaking : I am put under arrest : But in spite of 
 this am appointed Acting Magistrate : I offer to go to 
 Abyssinia : Moradabad Pp. 155-162 
 
 xi 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Butterfly : The Meerut Tent Club : A chronicle : A 
 picnic worth remembering Pp. 163-171 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Simla : We go to Morar, Gwalior : Success of Butterfly : 
 Colonel Gowan : We go home : An experience : Back to 
 India : The favourite beaten : Lord Mayo Pp. 172-180 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 The same old errand : I have my eyes opened : Interview 
 with Lord Napier ; Am offered a command : Lord Napier's 
 experience of the Gwalas • We go to Delhi : A parade : 
 I explain my views to my officers Pp. 181-191 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Improvement of the regiment : An inspection : Praise 
 and explanations : A good dinner : Snakes : Sham 
 fights : The Prince of Wales's visit : A new game of 
 tennis : Ulwar : A magnificent picnic Pp. 192-209 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Native history : Exploration : Buried treasure : A 
 company is formed : Difficulties with the directors : 
 Farewell Pp. 210-218 
 
 xu 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 My Youth : Voyage to India : Learning to Ride : 
 Stannus Fraser and my pony Mutton : Bannatyne 
 Macleod : To Rangoon on a Transport : Cockroaches : 
 In charge of the Government Elephants at Po- 
 dongmew : We start for Mindoon : A very reticent 
 Tiger 
 
 WHEN anyone begins to write 
 his reminiscences he is, at the 
 outset, faced with a difficulty. 
 If he mentions his early days 
 he is in danger of boring his readers, and if 
 he does not mention them he may be accused 
 of omitting something which I hope I may 
 be excused for calling vital. I will endeavour 
 to overcome this difficulty by being as brief 
 as possible. 
 
 I was born at Coundon, in Warwickshire, 
 in 1832. My mother was the daughter of 
 Sir Lachlan Maclean and my father's people 
 were bankers. Therefore, when questioned 
 by curious persons about my ancestors, I 
 have usually told them that I am descended 
 partly from cattle-stealers and partly from 
 bankers. 
 
 I was sent to a very good private school 
 in the village of AUesley, Warwickshire, and 
 at the age of seventeen I was given an Indian 
 cadetship by Sir John Cam Hobhouse, then 
 President of the Board of Control. The 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 date of this was June 27, 1849, ^"^ °" ^^^ 
 same date the good ship Barham^ one of 
 Green's Indiamen, left the Thames. 
 
 I joined the Barhatn-Bit Spithead on July i. 
 The voyage was a long one, and full of, what 
 were to me, interesting incidents. But in 
 these days it seems to me that one may be 
 very sure of two things, firstly that many 
 people who take voyages will write about 
 them, and secondly that what they may 
 write has to be extraordinarily far from the 
 commonplace if it is to be received with 
 any pretence of welcome. Interesting, then, 
 as this voyage was to me in my boyhood, I 
 cannot imagine that it would have the 
 smallest interest to anyone at the present 
 time. 
 
 We touched at Madras, and landed in 
 Calcutta on October 15. My age was 
 seventeen and a halt, and I did not know 
 a single soul in India. Without delay I 
 reported myself to the superintendent of 
 cadets, and was given quarters in Fort 
 William. The East India Company treated 
 their cadets excellently, and I found both a 
 capital mess and very comfortable quarters. 
 There I waited for a couple of months, until 
 I got my orders to join the 57th Native 
 Infantry at Dinapur. 
 
 I confess that I did not like the 57th 
 2 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 when I joined them. But presently they 
 were ordered away and I was posted to the 
 67th in the same station ; they proved 
 to be a much nicer set of fellows. After 
 two or three months I found myself posted 
 to the 2nd European Bengal Fusiliers, one 
 of the old Company's famous European 
 regiments. 
 
 I was to join at Agra, and, as there were 
 no railways at that time in India, I went by 
 river steamer to Allahabad and thence by 
 dak-gharrie to Agra. My regiment marched 
 in on March 2, 1850, and at once I found 
 myself at home. In those days a regiment 
 was one's home, for means of communication 
 being conspicuous by their absence, nobody 
 ever thought of leave. Every night of our 
 lives between thirty and forty of us used to 
 sit down to mess, and we were a convivial 
 and happy family party. 
 
 Within a few months I got a sharp attack 
 of small-pox, and when recovering was 
 offered six months' leave to the Himalayas, 
 but I refused to go. The regiment was my 
 home, and the rest of India had little charm 
 for me. Nowadays it is a very different 
 thing, for everyone who can get leave in the 
 hot weather is only too glad to take it. 
 
 Game was plentiful and I learnt to shoot, 
 and also to ride. I bought my first pony 
 
 3 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 from the postmaster at Allahabad, and I 
 doubt if anyone has ever learnt to ride in a 
 more gyratory school than mine. My animal 
 was what is called " a character," for he was 
 very amusing and exceedingly vicious. His 
 chief aim in life was to throw me off, and 
 in this he succeeded about twice a day for 
 over a year. But, having, so to speak, " done 
 his job," he was obviously quite satisfied and 
 always waited for me to remount. On the 
 whole I am inclined to think that he must 
 have enjoyed himself more than I did. 
 
 The consequence of often being picked 
 up at the corners of roads in the cantonment 
 was that my brother officers came to the 
 — perhaps natural — conclusion that I was 
 useless as a horseman. One day at mess, 
 however, we happened to be talking about 
 riding, when Stannus Eraser jeered at me, and 
 said that my opinion on the matter was not 
 worth listening to. 
 
 This annoyed me, so I said, " At any rate 
 I will bet you can't ride my pony. Mutton, 
 at a canter past my gate without being taken 
 in, and I'll bet you five gold mohurs that I 
 can. 
 
 Now Eraser was about the smartest young 
 fellow in the regiment, a thoroughly good- 
 all-round man, and he immediately took my 
 bet. 
 4 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 Everybody came out to see the fun, and I, 
 knowing my pony by this time, rode past 
 the gate without the sHghtest difficulty. 
 Then Eraser mounted a hundred yards down 
 the main road, and going off rather smartly 
 was carried through the gate and right up 
 to the house at the rate of forty miles an hour. 
 He hurt his knee very badly against the gate, 
 and he also lost five gold mohurs. 
 
 Afterwards I got the knack of picking up 
 stones in the road at full gallop off this pony, 
 and could even throw my whip ahead and 
 pick it up again. Indeed I do not think 
 that I was ever thrown again by Mutton, 
 for he, possibly, was tired of his amusements 
 and I was certainly a better horseman. 
 
 About this time I was fortunate enough 
 to make a most sincere and true friend. His 
 name was Bannatyne Macleod, and he was 
 Superintending Surgeon of Agra, a rank 
 which corresponds to the present Deputy 
 Inspector-General of Hospitals. He insisted 
 that I should go to live with him, and he 
 obtained my colonel's permission for me to 
 do so. 
 
 For about two years I lived with him in 
 the most intimate companionship. He was 
 a free-thinker, a very clever man, and held 
 what were then, at least, considered to be 
 very peculiar notions about the next world. 
 
 5 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Often he declared that if it should be possible 
 for him to communicate with me after death, 
 he would most assuredly do so. I mention 
 this now because later on I shall have some- 
 thing more to say upon the subject. 
 
 Life at Agra was most pleasant, but after 
 staying there for over two years we were 
 ordered to Calcutta, and proceeded there by 
 native boats down the Jumna and Ganges. 
 There we remained until, in the autumn of 
 '52, we were ordered to Rangoon. 
 
 The way the Government, in those days, 
 looked upon the European soldiers' accom- 
 modation was very different from what it is 
 now. Some four companies of my regiment 
 were placed on board a transport, called the 
 Ketiilwort/i, of about 400 tons. Now this 
 vessel had been employed to carry sugar 
 from Mauritius to Calcutta, and was con- 
 sequently full of every imaginable sort of 
 insect life. 
 
 Each officer was given a cabin to himself, 
 but when I put my head into mine I was 
 fairly and squarely defeated by the smell, 
 and promptly made it over to my native 
 servants, who held possession all the way to 
 Rangoon. As the weather was very fine I 
 slept on deck during the first night, and 
 woke up about 2 a.m. feeling rather uneasy. 
 At that time I always used oil on my hair 
 6 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 for the sake of coolness, and when I put my 
 hands to my head I found that my hair was 
 positively swarming with cockroaches which 
 were busily engaged in eating the oil. From 
 this occupation I speedily disturbed them, 
 and then found that all my toe-nails had been 
 eaten to the quick. 
 
 At dawn I got hold of the first mate, and 
 suggested that the cause, or one of the causes, 
 of this excess of cockroaches was that the 
 rudder post of the ship came up through a 
 well to the poop ; and on looking carefully 
 down this well we saw thousands and 
 thousands of cockroaches. We then pro- 
 ceeded to fill all the fire-buckets in the ship 
 and a lot of the men's grog-tubs with sea- 
 water and, at a given moment, dashed them 
 all into the well ; this we continued to do 
 until no cockroach was to be seen. 
 
 My chief recollections of the Kenihvorth are 
 connected with insects, for in addition to 
 those against which I made such a determined 
 attack, we were also accompanied by myriads 
 of sugar ants. These are minute red insects, 
 much smaller than a pin's head, and the 
 men, who had the whole of the hold as 
 quarters, suffered tremendously from their 
 superfluous attentions. 
 
 Shortly after reaching Rangoon we were 
 ordered up to Prome, where we spent the 
 
 7 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 hot weather. My regiment went to Burmah 
 iioo strong, but by the end of that year 
 we had lost 500 men and five officers. Every 
 man, from the colonel downwards, had fever 
 and ague every other day, in addition to 
 most of the cutaneous diseases to which our 
 flesh is heir. 
 
 Before the hot weather set in, however, I 
 was sent to an out-station, sixteen miles 
 below Prome on the right bank of the 
 Irrawaddy, called Po-dongmew. There I 
 had a delightful time, for very soon I found 
 myself commanding the station and the 
 only European officer present. 
 
 An extraordinary epidemic had attacked 
 the Government elephants, and Po-dongmew, 
 having an abundance of fodder, was con- 
 sidered to be the most healthy place for 
 them. Consequently I found myself in 
 charge of 437 elephants, and was delighted 
 to have such a novel experience. I was 
 constantly in their keddah, rode one or 
 two daily, and became very friendly with 
 some of them. But there was one point 
 about these elephants that did not please 
 me, and this I mentioned to the Jemadar. 
 
 " You natives," I said to him, " think a 
 great deal about the completeness of the 
 hairs of the elephant's tails. But you seem 
 to have a very bad lot here, and any number of 
 8 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 elephants have lost their tails altogether. 
 How do you explain this ? " 
 
 " I will show you, Sahib," he replied, and 
 took me up to a remarkable-looking elephant 
 with a very red eye. 
 
 I did not fancy this animal in the very 
 least, but on being assured that he was quite 
 harmless to Europeans, I went up and took 
 hold of his trunk and talked to him. 
 
 " That elephant," the Jemadar continued, 
 " is the cause of all the trouble. He would 
 never hurt a man, but he is mad to bite off 
 the tails of other elephants." 
 
 Two days after I heard a tremendous noise 
 in the keddah, and rushing out of my tent 
 I saw this elephant, with his trunk curled in 
 the air, coming along at a tearing speed and 
 carrying another elephant's tail in his mouth. 
 
 I got to know a great many of these 
 elephants, and to watch their ways was a 
 most interesting study. Often I used to 
 take out as many as a hundred at a time, 
 and having formed them in line we beat down 
 the grass jungles in the neighbourhood. On 
 these occasions I myself drove a female 
 elephant, called Lutchnee — the pleasantest 
 animal I ever knew. In those days I had 
 only a small-bore gun, and I am bound to 
 confess that game was as plentiful as my 
 bags were small. 
 
 9 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 The Burmese War was now over, and our 
 frontier with Upper Burmah had been de- 
 fined on the map as 19 deg. 20 min. Thus 
 it became necessary, in the midst of the 
 jungles, to discover where 19 deg. 20 min. 
 was. And this was especially indispensable, 
 as there was said to be a town called 
 Mindoon, and nobody knew whether it was 
 on our side of the boundary or on the Upper 
 Burmah side ; for, it must be remembered, 
 we had only annexed Lower Burmah. 
 
 Soon afterwards I heard that the Chiet 
 Commissioner, Colonel A. Phayre, was 
 coming to Po-dongmew, and thence was 
 going to start with a force to discover 
 the town of Mindoon. The force was to 
 consist of fifty Europeans of my regiment 
 and a hundred natives of the 65th Bengal 
 Infantry, and for carriage we were to rely 
 upon elephants. 
 
 The country from Po-dongmew up to the 
 frontier was supposed to reach over nearly 
 150 miles, and to be thickly wooded and 
 with no suspicion of a road. This sup- 
 position proved to be perfectly correct, and 
 in some places we found the jungle to be so 
 thick that we could not advance more than 
 half a mile in a day. In other places, where 
 there had been jungle fires, we managed to 
 get on more quickly. 
 10 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 To me this was a most delightful journey, 
 for it was impossible to tell what one might 
 see or meet. The country was quite unin- 
 habited, although we certainly did come 
 across one man. He had a fire and a sum- 
 pitan — that is, a hollow blow-pipe about 
 six feet long. This old man of the jungle 
 got his living by shooting small birds 
 (mostly partridges) with little darts through 
 this tube. In answer to our questions he 
 replied that he " sought and found," a 
 peculiarly terse way of summing up his 
 existence. 
 
 I was constantly with the advance guard, 
 which consisted of a corporal and four men. 
 When we came out into an open bit of 
 jungle, the black partridge, usually a most 
 shy bird, would come up to me as I rode on 
 my pony, and run along by the side of my 
 stirrup. The bird used to look at me 
 inquisitively, as much as to say, " What 
 sort of strange animal are you ? " Nearly 
 every time that we pitched camp we caught 
 several hares, and sometimes even birds. 
 
 One day, just as we were pitching our 
 tents, two sambhur with a young hind 
 behind them came close to us. The 
 sambhur cleared their way, but the hind 
 stumbled over an elephant's coolie, with the 
 result that we had venison for dinner. I 
 
 1 1 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 do not know what game-hunters of the 
 present day would think of twenty men 
 falling on the top of a hind, but that 
 was the way in which we secured our 
 venison. 
 
 Later on, when we were in a ravine 
 country covered with bamboo jungle, I 
 borrowed a coolie from the hospital, and 
 went out to see if I could shoot a few 
 jungle fowl. The only way one could walk 
 in this country was along the bottom of the 
 ravines, which were full of dry leaves of 
 bamboo. After I had got some five miles 
 from camp, and had shot three jungle cocks, 
 I came to an insuperable bunker in the form 
 of a dense thorn jungle. There I sat down, 
 for as I was compelled to go back along the 
 same ravine by which I had come, I thought 
 that I would wait for an hour or so in the 
 hope that some of the game I had disturbed 
 might return. 
 
 I had proceeded for about a mile on my 
 homeward journey, when I saw a large tiger, 
 apparently fast asleep, and with his tail-end 
 towards me, lying comfortably along the 
 bottom of the ravine. Now, to get back to 
 the camp, I had to walk over the very spot 
 where he was, so I dropped a bullet down 
 over my small shot into one barrel, and for 
 a second bullet, which had been carried in 
 
 12 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 my mouth and had got a Httle bitten, I had 
 to use a ramrod. This made a noise, and the 
 tiger raised his head. Then he licked his 
 shoulder, and looked along his body at me 
 just as a cat might have looked. 
 
 When I had pointed out the tiger to 
 Dabee Deen, my coolie, he remarked, " Yes, 
 Sahib, you will kill him now that you have 
 put down the bullets." On this point I did 
 not feel anything like so confident as the 
 coolie appeared to be ; but as the difficulty 
 had to be faced, I went round a little bend 
 of the ravine to within a few yards of him. 
 Then the tiger got up, stretched himself, 
 and snarled. 
 
 His next move was to look at me with 
 what I considered a rather morbid interest. 
 I returned his stare. I had made up my 
 mind not to fire until he crouched to spring, 
 when I hoped to give him one in the 
 eye, and to jump aside as he sprang ; and 
 subsequently, if possible, to give him the 
 other bullet as he passed by. So much for 
 my programme, but the tiger would not 
 assist me to carry it out. 
 
 Presently he began to walk slowly away, 
 and I walked after him. When he stopped 
 I pretended to be admiring the scenery. 
 When he walked on I followed. In this 
 way we proceeded for over a quarter of a 
 
 13 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 mile, when he strolled up one side of the 
 ravine into the deep jungle, leaving me in 
 the ticklish position of having to pass, with 
 my gun ready, under the spot where he had 
 just disappeared ; but I never saw him again. 
 Possibly the reasons for his reticent behaviour 
 were that I was the first man he had ever 
 seen, and that he did not happen to be 
 hungry. 
 
 H 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The taking of Mindoon : A curious fish : Fever and 
 ague : A trip to Rangoon : MacDowall's treatment for 
 a recalcitrant woman : Invalided home : A generous 
 offer from an American 
 
 WE wandered through this beauti- 
 ful country for thirty days or 
 more, and then the native scouts 
 reported that we were approach- 
 ing Mindoon. At the moment we were on 
 the banks of a beautiful and very clear river, 
 which must have its source in the Arracan 
 Hills. We also began to see signs of a 
 path, and evidently were returning to the 
 habitations of men. 
 
 During dinner on that night Colonel 
 Phayre said that he would like somebody to 
 go on and reconnoitre, and I at once volun- 
 teered. The Commanding Officer gave me 
 one duifadar and eight sowars, who were 
 also a part of our force ; and I was ac- 
 companied by two Burmese headmen, each 
 of whom had a servant or friend, and an 
 interpreter, thus making fifteen men, all 
 mounted. In addition I was given twenty 
 men of the 65th Native Infantry, who had 
 been picked for fast walking. 
 
 At 2 A.M. on that same night we started 
 along the faint signs of a path, and by the 
 
 15 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 earliest dawn we found ourselves about 400 
 yards from the gates of Mindoon. On 
 inspection, Mindoon turned out to be a 
 strongly stockaded place. It was surrounded 
 almost entirely by the river, and a deep moat 
 had been cut round the only open place, so 
 that it was practically an island. From the 
 spot on which we had halted I could see two 
 very narrow bamboo bridges across the moat, 
 and these led to the big gateway. 
 
 We waited until the gates had been opened 
 and then we rode at full gallop, the duffadar 
 making for one bridge and I for the other. 
 We succeeded in getting to the gate before 
 it could be closed, and almost everyone ran 
 away as we arrived. The town seemed to 
 be full of people, the majority of whom were 
 women. I immediately took possession of 
 a large white temple, which was covered 
 with highly coloured paintings on a white 
 ground of the tortures of the Burmese hell. 
 It was not the kind of place which lent itself 
 to any undue exaltation of spirits, and I was 
 very glad when, a few hours later, I saw the 
 remainder of the force marching in. 
 
 Mindoon itself was extremely beautiful, 
 and its river so attractive to a fisherman that, 
 having a fish-hook with some line in an old 
 pocket-book, I determined to try my luck. 
 Having got a tapering bamboo from the 
 16 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 jungle, I put a common house-fly on the 
 hook and soon caught a fish exactly like 
 an English dace. 
 
 Seeing, however, bigger fellows than this 
 one swimming about, I put on a worm and 
 dropped it into a nice pool, in which there 
 were half a dozen big fish, but of a most 
 peculiar colour. Presently I caught one and 
 hauled him out, a proceeding which he 
 resented in a manner entirely novel — and not 
 excessively amusing — to me. As a matter 
 of fact, he blew himself into a round ball, 
 nearly as big as a football, and barked at me 
 so ferociously that I had no wish to have any- 
 thing more to do with him. If he was not 
 poisonous his appearance was exceptionally 
 deceptive. 
 
 We stayed at Mindoon for about ten days, 
 and all of us were very sorry to leave it. 
 The town was famous for a particular kind 
 of tobacco, which was said to be the best in 
 Burmah, and that, indeed, seemed to be the 
 only cultivation around the place. 
 
 From there we marched to Thayetmyo, 
 on the Irrav>addy, but the only remarkable 
 things about Thayetmyo were the complete 
 absence of sanitary arrangements and the 
 extraordinary number of fleas. The ground 
 on which we encamped was a whitish sand, 
 but until you began to put a foot down it 
 
 B 17 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 was black with fleas, and it became white as 
 you walked. 
 
 From Thayetmyo I went down the river by 
 steamer and rejoined the regiment at Prome, 
 and from that time disease, mostly fever and 
 ague, set in. So virulent did it become that 
 the Government ordered the formation of 
 a new station on a large promontory which 
 jutted out into the Irrawaddy. This place 
 was called Namyan, and there wooden bar- 
 racks were erected and we officers received 
 orders to build our own houses. In fact we 
 were refused leave until we had, at least, 
 begun to build. 
 
 I was really rather pleased with my first 
 attempt to build a house of wood and bam- 
 boo ; but by the time it was nearly ready 
 for a house-warming this new station had 
 become so terribly unhealthy that of the 
 two hundred men and officers in occupation 
 of it, there were only a very few who could 
 walk to the steamer which was sent to take 
 us off. 
 
 Two other outpost stations were formed 
 at Upper and Lower Showedoung, where we 
 were quartered in poongy houses and temples, 
 and these stations were certainly healthier. 
 Unable, however, to get free of fever, I was 
 recommended to take a trip down to Rangoon 
 and back again by the river steamer. 
 i8 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 At Rangoon I stayed with Charlie Mac- 
 Dowall, who related to me an experience 
 of his which, in these days of militant and 
 law-bi'eaking women, I cannot refrain from 
 putting down. 
 
 One evening I had started the conver- 
 sation with an account of my taking the 
 town of Mindoon — up to that time my only 
 independent command. 
 
 " Ah," Mac said, " it's all very well com- 
 manding men, but it is quite another thing 
 to be in charge of women on the line of 
 march. If a woman gets drunk, what can 
 you do ? There is no prison, and you can't 
 handcuff her and make her march tied to 
 a cart as you would a man." 
 
 I assured him that I could think of nothing 
 to meet the case, and he continued : " When 
 I brought down the regimental depot from 
 the hills to Agra after the Punjab campaign, 
 I had about fifty women, a lot of children, 
 and a dozen or so of more or less weakly 
 men. But fortunately I had Colour-Sergeant 
 James Monks with me, and what I should 
 have done without him I don't know. When 
 we left Kalka nearly everyone was drunk, 
 and Monks and I found that the women had 
 been selling liquor to the men. Things 
 went from bad to worse, and though we 
 could keep the men from getting liquor for 
 
 19 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 themselves, we could not prevent the women 
 from selling it to them. The worst offender 
 was a big Irishwoman whose name began 
 with an M, and when she was sober Monks 
 brought her before me under a guard." 
 
 The recollection of this violent lady caused 
 MacDowall to pause for an instant, but I 
 urged him to tell me how he had dealt 
 with her. 
 
 " She would not listen to anything I had 
 to say," he told me, " but her stock of bad 
 language was the largest I have ever listened 
 to. Now, I had been consulting with Monks 
 and he had recommended two courses. The 
 first I put into practice then and there. 
 Calling for the regimental water-carriers, 
 we made Mrs. M. sit down while they 
 thoroughly soused her with water. Per- 
 haps this treatment quieted her a little, but 
 the flow of water didn't do much to stop 
 her flow of language. Two or three days 
 afterwards she was again before me for the 
 same offence, and once more we were all 
 most vilely abused." 
 
 " However," continued MacDowall, 
 " Monks and I had still another card up our 
 sleeves. ' Mrs. M.,' I said, ' I could not 
 have believed that any woman could so dis- 
 grace her sex. I must try a new form of 
 punishment.' Turning to the sergeant, I said, 
 20 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 ' Monks, send for the regimental barber.' 
 \Vhen the barber had come I ordered him 
 to cut off Mrs. M.'s hair until only about 
 half an inch of it was left all round her head. 
 
 " ' Yu'll never do it. Shure ye wouldn't 
 do such a thing,' she exclaimed. 
 
 " ' There's nothing else I can do,' I said, 
 ' and at any rate that is the punishment you 
 are to receive.' 
 
 " Then she went down on her knees and 
 called upon the Holy Virgin to protect her, 
 and swore that she would never sell a drop 
 of liquor again, and went on to beg my 
 pardon and to say what a ' dear, good, kind 
 man ' I was. 
 
 " ' Well,' I said, ■• you shall be forgiven 
 this time, but remember the next time your 
 conduct is outrageous off your hair comes.' 
 
 " She went away to her tent and we never 
 had any more trouble with her, and I've 
 never given up thanking Monks for propos- 
 ing such an effective punishment." 
 
 " After all," I said to xMacDowall \^■hen 
 he had finished, " it is only giving women 
 the same treatment as men." 
 
 And to this day it seems to me that if 
 women commit wanton outrages, they ought 
 to be punished in an efficacious way. 
 
 At Rangoon I was attended by an assistant 
 surgeon, named White, who said that I ought 
 
 21 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 to be sent to England, and so I was invalided 
 home and left Calcutta early in April in the 
 P. & O. steamer Beiitinck. At Point-de- 
 Galle several Americans came on board, and 
 began to play poker every afternoon. 
 
 I thought that I should like to learn the 
 game, for, although I had never played it 
 before, I had played a good deal at " brag," 
 and thouglit that the latter game was very 
 much like poker. In a very few days nearly 
 all the players owed me money, and before 
 we landed I had won a considerable stake. 
 
 On board there was a most agreeable 
 American. He had just resigned the Con- 
 sulship of the Sandwich Islands, and was one 
 of the best fellows I have ever met. He 
 was very kind to me, and before we got to 
 Suez he said, " Look here, Harris, I would 
 like you to go all over Europe with me, and 
 apart from wanting to see Rome and Venice 
 I doii't care a bit where I gu. You shall be 
 with me for six months, and I'll pay all 
 expenses and take you through England and 
 to my home in America." The generosity 
 of this offer cannot be denied, and I have 
 often thought how silly I was to refuse it, 
 but the fact was I was very anxious to get 
 home and see my mother. 
 
 22 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 I return to India : Rumours of the Mutiny : We march 
 to Umballa : Our march to Delhi : Want of sleep : 
 Anger of the Europeans ; My first action and sensations 
 during it . Flagstaff Tower : We take the Ridge : 
 Chichester and I go to inspect a Battery 
 
 I STAYED in England for eighteen 
 months and Hved mostly in rooms in 
 Jermyn Street. Of course I fell in 
 love, and with my first love to whom 
 I had been attached ever since she was 
 thirteen. I could not, however, afford to 
 marry, so I left England in the autumn of 
 '56, and after making a trip through Spain 
 I joined the P. & O. steamer at Gibraltar. 
 
 Having arrived at Calcutta, I reported 
 myself at the Adjutant-General's office and 
 then went to see Dan O'Callaghan, who was 
 garrison surgeon of Fort William and a man 
 famous for his tiffins. I stayed to tiffin, 
 and Dan asked me what I was going to do. 
 In reply I said that I should go up and stay 
 with Bannatyne Macleod at Umballa — to 
 which place I knew that Macleod had been 
 transferred, because we had written to each 
 other by every mail since we had parted four 
 years before. 
 
 " Oh," O'Callaghan said, " then you have 
 not heard .'' " 
 
 23 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 " I am only just off ship, and have heard 
 nothing," I answered. 
 
 Whereupon O'Callaghan told me that 
 Bannatyne was dead, and I knew then that 
 he was unable to communicate with me ; tor 
 had he been able, I felt quite satisfied, in 
 my own mind, that he would have done so. 
 
 Being allowed — under the Bengal regula- 
 tions of the H.E.I.C. — marching time to 
 join my regiment, I was not compelled to 
 hurry, and so I had plenty of opportunity 
 to amuse myself on the way up to Umballa. 
 
 At that time there was only one railway (of 
 121 miles) in India, which went to Raniganj 
 and the Bengal coal-fields. From Raniganj 
 I had to go by dak-gharrie up to Allahabad 
 and thence to Cawnpore, where the other 
 battalion of my regiment, the ist European 
 Bengal Fusiliers, was then stationed. I had 
 a very pleasant time, and again met the Nana, 
 whose acquaintance I had first made in 
 185 --52. Afterwards I stayed at Lucknow 
 and Agra, and passing through Delhi I, at 
 length, rejoined my regiment at Umballa 
 towards the end of March. 
 
 No idea of the impending mutiny had 
 entered my mind, but in Umballa it became 
 evident that the country was very much 
 disturbed. The firing of bungalows was 
 rife, and the attitude of the sepoys was by 
 
 24 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 no means what it had been. But we in the 
 European regiment were not in the least 
 anxious about this. 
 
 In the early part of April we marched up 
 to Subathoo, which was our proper station. 
 The first battalion marched up from Cawn- 
 pore to Dagshai, and the 75th, now the 
 Gordon Highlanders, marched to Kussoulie, 
 all three of these stations being in the lower 
 hills. 
 
 About May i I got ten days' leave to 
 Simla, where I stayed with Lord William 
 Hay ; and as I rode down to rejoin at Suba- 
 thoo I received the first news of the 
 mutiny from W. Plowden, B.C.S. I met 
 him riding a tired pony close to the Hurree- 
 pore Bridge, and he asked me to exchange 
 my pony for his. But when he told me of 
 the mutiny at Meerut, and of the massacre 
 of women and children, I said that I ex- 
 pected we should march down on the 
 following day, and that I should want my 
 pony. 
 
 My expectations were realised, tor next 
 day we got orders to march down to Um- 
 balla, but even then we did not believe that 
 the trouble was really serious. I remember, 
 when marching up the hill to Kussoulie, 
 that I was beside the Adjutant-General on 
 the narrow pathway, and asked him if he 
 
 25 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 thought we were really going down to 
 Delhi, for my private opinion was that we 
 should not get farther than Umballa. I 
 was, therefore, very considerably relieved 
 when he replied that we should certainly go 
 down to Delhi, and take it if we could. 
 
 In the evening we reached Kussoulie, 
 messed with the 75th, and we slept on the 
 floor of the mess-room. Next morning we 
 were up early, and reached Umballa in two 
 days, making one halt on the way. We 
 marched all night and the next night, for 
 the weather was terribly hot, but the flies 
 prevented us from getting any sleep in the 
 daytime. Ultimately we straggled into 
 Umballa at 9 a.m. The men went into 
 barracks, and the ofliicers, fifty-seven of us in 
 all, were ordered into the unturnished and 
 unoccupied mess-house of the 13th Foot. 
 
 Peake and Allen, the chemists and big 
 store-keepers of Umballa, had just obtained 
 some soda-water machines from England, 
 and they provided us with lemonade, ginger- 
 beer, and other effervescing drinks to which 
 we had hitherto been unaccustomed. Our 
 thirst, I may say, was appalling. From the 
 native bazaar we managed to get a sufficient 
 number of charpoys, and tried to make our- 
 selves as comfortable as possible and to curb 
 our impatience, for naturally we were all 
 26 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 full of anxiety to march down to Delhi. 
 Two native regiments were known to be 
 disaffected there, and every thatched bunga- 
 low in the place had been burned down by 
 the natives, who had fired burning arrows 
 into the thatch. 
 
 Day after day, however, to our increasing 
 disgust and disappointment, we were kept 
 in that old mess-house to wait for the 
 arrival of a siege-train from Philaur. At 
 last, towards the end of the month, this 
 train, consisting of six i8-pounders and six 
 8-inch howitzers, with some cohorns, arrived, 
 and we marched towards Delhi. 
 
 The heat was frightful, and the dust 
 beyond anything I had ever seen in my life. 
 We always started to march at about 6 p.m., 
 and about 9 a.m. we got into a camping 
 ground. As I never could sleep during 
 the day, especially when I wanted to, I shall 
 never forget the tortures I suffered from 
 want of sleep. Marching at about two miles 
 an hour as we were, I used to fall off my 
 pony five or six times every night. When 
 I fell off I thanked God I was off, and there 
 I lay until the rear-guard pulled me to my 
 feet. Then I would march in the ranks 
 between the men, and stagger from one side 
 to the other against my neighbours. 
 
 Eventually we reached Raie, which was, 
 
 27 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 as far as I remember, about eleven miles from 
 Delhi. There a scene occurred which 
 showed the feeling of the Europeans. A 
 Lancer man, after our tents were pitched, 
 rode through the camp with the foot and 
 part of the leg of a small European child, 
 which he had found somewhere on the 
 road. The foot still had a little shoe upon 
 it, and the gruesome spectacle so enraged 
 our troops that in a few minutes twenty 
 natives were hanging on the nearest tree. 
 
 At Raie we heard that the mutineers had 
 taken up a position across the Grand Trunk 
 road, about four or five miles farther on, and 
 that they had erected a battery and had some 
 seventy guns in position. 
 
 Our artillery, foUow^ed by the infantry, 
 moved off at early dawn, and, true to report, 
 we found the enemy strongly posted right 
 across the Grand Trunk road. As we came 
 within range ot the guns each regiment 
 deployed into line. 
 
 We were on the extreme left, the 75th in 
 the centre opposite to the biggest battery, 
 and the ist Fusiliers on the right. In front 
 of us there were only two batteries of Horse 
 Artillery, newly turned out from the Arsenal 
 in Delhi. They were so like our own men 
 that several times I gave orders to cease 
 firing, because I thought that we were firing 
 28 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 upon our own fellows. The 75th, on our 
 right, stormed the big battery at once, and 
 lost about 70 men ; but we had an easier 
 task. We captured most of the Horse 
 Artillery guns, tumbril, and ammunition 
 wagons, and also a large store-cart full of 
 rupees. Then we halted and i-e-formed line. 
 Before we went into action I had been 
 extremely nervous as to what my behaviour 
 would be in this my first fight. Let me say, 
 then, that I found it most delightful, and I 
 think I may add that, as long as one is advan- 
 cing in line against anything in the world, as 
 long as one can advance^ fighting is a pleasure to 
 the majority of soldiers. I felt very much 
 relieved at my total lack of " nerves," and 
 looked forward to more fighting. The man 
 next to me in my company, a private of the 
 name of Alpin, got a round shot which 
 took off his leg. It did not upset me at all. 
 My pay-sergeant, Donovan, got another 
 round shot which took off his right arm 
 high up at the shoulder, and the arm caught 
 the adjutant, Coghill, right in the face. 
 This incident, which, when remembered in 
 cold blood, is sufficiently horrible, seemed 
 to me at the moment to be very amusing. 
 The place where we had been fighting was 
 called Bad-li-ke-serai. 
 
 We were now within three or four miles 
 
 29 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 from the ridge outside Delhi, and we could 
 see the enemy's artillery on the top of it. 
 Having crossed a small nullah by a bridge, 
 we came out on the Grand Parade, which is 
 exactly where our King George was encamped 
 at the last Durbar. No sooner did we reach 
 this parade-ground than we inclined to the 
 left and made for the Flagstaff road on the 
 ridge. Immediately the guns opened upon 
 our flank. We were in columns of com- 
 panies, and I discovered to my surprise 
 that I did not like it at all. As we got 
 nearer, and began to climb the rocky ridge, 
 the feeling became worse. Of all sounds 
 in the world, that of grape-shot striking 
 rocks is the most discomforting and dis- 
 agreeable ! 
 
 There was a good road up to the Flagstaff 
 Tower on the top of the ridge, and, turning 
 to the right at the top, we soon cleared the 
 enemy's artillery off the ridge. There we 
 came across eight or ten artillery carts, filled 
 with the dried bodies of women and children 
 who had been massacred. On our way down 
 from Umballa we had met various suffering 
 ladies and children, and I must say that the 
 prevailing feeling among us was that we 
 should like to kill every sepoy we saw. 
 
 By 9 A.M. we had taken the whole ridge. 
 Pickets were formed at the Flagstaff, the 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 Mosque, the Observatory, and Hindoo Rao's. 
 In the early afternoon the rest of us marched 
 back to the Grand Parade, and I found my- 
 self for quarter-guard duty. 
 
 Presently Hodson came up to me with 
 the joyful news that he could give me some 
 lunch, and, sitting on the ground, we had 
 it together. I had known both Hodson 
 and his wife very well in Umballa, and during 
 a long varied and eventful life I have never 
 seen a finer cavalry soldier than he was. 
 That lunch is impressed upon my memory. 
 A kitmutghar brought us a meat-pie cooked 
 in a tin pie-dish. The heat had turned 
 everything sour, and of course we had no 
 bread. But we were given chupatties and 
 BEER. I am told that someone has since 
 written a song in praise of beer, but I do 
 not think that anyone can realise what we 
 thought of beer in June '57. 
 
 When our tents had been pitched I found 
 that I was in an old hill tent, which had no 
 chiks to speak of. It was during that day, 
 and, indeed, throughout the whole siege, 
 about as full of flies as it could hold. We 
 were all very tired and anxious to get some 
 sleep, but my chief suffering while we were 
 before Delhi always came from want of sleep. 
 Food I could then, and can now, do without, 
 but sleep is a necessity. Being on duty, I 
 
 31 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 remained with the guard during that first 
 night, so that I could be wakened. 
 
 On the following day, June 9, I found 
 myself quite fit again, and at noon a great 
 friend of mine, Hugh Chichester, a subaltern 
 of the Royal Artillery, came to my fly- 
 infested tent. He was full of the news 
 that during the night the artillery had erected 
 a battery in front of Hindoo Rao's tor an 
 i8-pounder and an 8-inch howitzer, and he 
 wanted me to go up to the ridge with him 
 to see it. 
 
 This was great and exciting news, and, 
 perhaps naturally, we imagined that Delhi 
 was going to be taken at once. Neither 
 Chichester nor I had ever seen a real battery, 
 and we had scarcely got into it and had time 
 to think what a small thing it was before 
 every gun in Delhi opened fire upon us — 
 from the Cashmere, the Moree, the Lahore, 
 and other batteries. 
 
 Some of these guns were 32-pounders, and 
 in less than a minute two men had their 
 heads taken off by round shot and many 
 others were wounded. Very little cover was 
 to be found, and I sat down between the 
 howitzer and the gun, and kept saying to 
 myself, " Well, to think I came here for 
 pleasure ! " I also wondered how on earth 
 I was going to get away. Anyone in search 
 32 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 of amusement is strongly advised by me not 
 to try to find it by sitting in a small battery 
 which is being pounded by heavy guns. 
 
 Presently, however, the enemy were tired 
 of firing, and I walked slowly away, endea- 
 vouring, as I went, to suggest to myself that 
 I was rather enjoying it. One of the limbers, 
 a little further to the rear, was blown up by 
 a shell and eight gunners were blown up 
 with it. Their clothes were alight, and 
 some of them had half of their bodies blown 
 away. All of them were in a terrible state, 
 and some were begging their comrades to 
 bayonet them and put them out of their 
 misery. I think that it is astonishing how 
 very soon one forgets these sights in action, 
 and how small an impression they make at 
 the moment. 
 
 From this time I was constantly on picket 
 duty. Delhi was really fought by subalterns. 
 We had only two captains, and one of them 
 was very ill. So short of officers were we 
 that I commanded three companies. 
 
 33 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 On the ridge : A narrow shave : Cowards : Another 
 near shave : Reinforcing Hindoo Rao's picket : Utter 
 exhaustion 
 
 EVENTUALLY we received rein- 
 forcements, but I cannot say pre- 
 cisely when they joined us. I 
 believe the 6oth Rifles and the 
 Carbineers from Meerut came in before Bad- 
 li-ke-serai, but I did not happen to see 
 them. I, however, watched the Guides 
 (who made that famous march from Hoti- 
 murdan at an average of twenty-two miles a 
 day) arrive, and not a man had fallen out. 
 From the line of march they went straight 
 into action. It is good to remember those 
 splendid fellows. Nor let me forget the 
 Ghoorkas, under Major Reid, who lived 
 on the ridge during the whole siege, and on 
 the most exposed part of it. They suffered 
 more than any of us, for they were con- 
 stantly under fire, day and night. 
 
 On June 12 I found myself in orders to 
 relieve the picket of the 75th at the Flag- 
 staff Tower. We arrived at earliest dawn, 
 and were at once attacked and our skirmishers 
 driven in. Captain Knox, who commanded 
 the two companies of the 75th, was shot 
 through the head, and the next captain dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 34 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 Two light guns, under Bishop, R.A., were 
 on the right of the tower, pointing down 
 the road to the Cashmere Gate, and as the 
 skirmishers ran past the guns at the double I 
 remember apologising to Bishop for falling 
 back behind him, and saying, as I went by 
 him, " I must form up these fellows." For 
 they were all in a confused crowd in the 
 rear of a limber, firing in the air, and more 
 or less in a state of panic. The language I 
 used was, I am sure, more powerful than 
 polite, but there was little or nothing for me 
 to do. 
 
 My colour-sergeant, Jerry Noon, who was 
 firing in the air as fast as he could load, filled 
 me with such violent fury that I rushed 
 at him, intending to cut him down. But 
 just in time he put up his musket to save 
 himself, and I allowed my sword to come 
 down on his bayonet. 
 
 Then I stood out with my back to the 
 enemy in front of the limber and the men, 
 and tried to persuade them to form line and 
 come on. While I was standing in this 
 position I suddenly became aware of a 
 bayonet close to my left ear, and being 
 quick on my feet I jumped backwards and 
 sideways into a hole from which earth had 
 been taken to fill the sandbags in front of 
 the guns. 
 
 35 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 This was a lucky excavation for me. As 
 I jumped in the Jemadar fired over my 
 shoulder, whereupon I, leaping out, caught 
 him with my regulation sword on the side 
 of his neck. I thought that I had cut his 
 head clean off. The cutting down of the 
 enemy's leader had a tonic effect on my men, 
 and, headed by one Jerry Lynch, they came 
 out from behind the limber. Then some 
 fifty men, under the sergeant-major, came 
 up from the camp and joined us, and with- 
 out a single stop we drove the enemy down 
 the slope and right up to the walls of Delhi. 
 As we returned to the Flagstaff my attention 
 was drawn to the Jemadar's body, and we 
 found that his head was hanging by a little 
 piece of skin. 
 
 After this I generally found myself on the 
 Mosque picket, which was comparatively 
 an easier post because there was some shade 
 from the Minarets. It was two-storied, and 
 the officers lived on the top story. During 
 the day the enemy amused themselves by 
 firing an 8-inch shell at us every five minutes. 
 But they rarely managed to hit us, and as 
 the siege progressed their shooting became 
 decidedly worse, owing no doubt to their 
 best men having been killed. 
 
 I have to add that after the affair at the 
 Flagstaff Tower I was so enraged with my 
 
 36 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 men that I went into every one of the tents 
 of my particular company and made a point 
 of calling each man a coward. Some of 
 them, of course, were very indignant. 
 Nevertheless I insisted upon it, because it 
 was true that until I had cut down the 
 Jemadar I had not been able to get any of 
 them to form line or follow me. 
 
 I reaped the benefit of this when, a few 
 days later, being on the Mosque picket, I 
 got a sudden order to reinforce Hindoo 
 Rao's picket. Now the road between the 
 Mosque and Hindoo Rao's ran along the 
 top of the ridge, and was very plainly visible 
 from the walls of Delhi. 
 
 I marched in column of fours, and, imme- 
 diately on my left, marched a Sikh belong- 
 ing to the Guides, to whom I was talking 
 as we walked. Looking back over my 
 shoulder, I saw that my men were beginning 
 to straggle, so I gave the order, " Mark 
 time." The Sikh, however, not being under 
 my orders, continued to march on, and he had 
 advanced about ten paces when the enemy 
 on the Moree bastion fired two guns with 
 shrapnel at us. But for that command, 
 " Mark time," both the leading files and I 
 must have been swept away. As it was the 
 Sikh was unharmed, although the back of 
 his uniform was torn in several places, and 
 
 37 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 the front of mine was also torn. But not a 
 man was hurt. 
 
 In fairness to my men it is only right to 
 say here that not only on this occasion but 
 ever afterwards the discipline of my company 
 was to my mind perfect, and there was 
 always between us that mutual trust, difficult 
 to arrive at, but which, when attained, is the 
 most valuable asset that man or officer can 
 possess. 
 
 When I resumed the march I took care 
 to get off the road, for I found that it was a 
 foolish trick to be on the sky-line. I think 
 that this day was June 23, and it was 
 certainly the turning-point of the siege. 
 
 I never saw men so utterly done up as 
 the whole of the picket was at Hindoo 
 Rao's, for there was hardly a drop of water 
 to be got. The enemy had already made 
 six attacks, and while I was there some 
 officer called out, " Fall in ; the enemy are 
 streaming out of Lahore Gate." Not a man 
 moved in answer to this command. They 
 were sitting and lying about in any scrap of 
 shade they could find, with their tongues 
 black in their mouths. My own men were 
 nearly the only ones fit for service, and 
 I marched on to the right, where the 
 Ghoorkas were, and told Major Reid that 
 my men were ready. At this he expressed 
 38 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 great pleasure, and added that he was sure 
 everyone else was too tired and exhausted 
 to fight. The enemy, however, did not 
 attack again, and I saw them retreat back 
 to the Lahore Gate. Had they attacked 
 just once more, they must have driven us off 
 the ridge, for I had only thirty-two men 
 with me, and we had been on picket duty 
 for three days and nights without even 
 having time for a wash. And yet we 
 were better off than the others. When 
 night fell I got back to the Mosque, and 
 was relieved next day. 
 
 39 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Despondency and its cure : Defending the vegetable 
 market : Wounded : My attempt to reach Rao's 
 picket : A dangerous position ; An invalid ; A trying 
 journey : Nerves ; In a patent apparatus 
 
 ON June 27 I was ordered for 
 Hindoo Rao's picket. On that 
 morning I got up in the very 
 lowest spirits ; never before or 
 since have I been in such a bewildering 
 state of depression. Besides being low- 
 spirited I was also muddle-headed, and the 
 Adjutant had to call attention to the mis- 
 takes I made on falling in my picket. It 
 is enough to say that I felt supremely 
 wretched and confident of disaster. 
 
 As we advanced, round shot and grape 
 came crashing through the trees, and a big 
 bough fell close to me ; then, in a moment, 
 the whole black feeling of misery vanished, 
 and I was myself again. Having arrived at 
 Hindoo Rao's, I was ordered down to the 
 Subsee Mundee (vegetable market), a col- 
 lection of mud huts on both sides of the 
 Grand Trunk road. These huts had 
 thatched roofs, all of which had been 
 burnt. 
 
 While wondering what to do in this vast 
 assemblage of huts, I received an order from 
 40 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 the Commanding Officer of the picket 
 telhng me to hold the place with my men. 
 In answer I wrote back at once that if he 
 would send me a thousand men I should be 
 happy to obey him, but with my force all I 
 could hope to do was to try to defend the 
 line of road. As there were three or four 
 pukka buildings close to our side of the 
 road I took possession of them, so that I 
 might keep the road between me and the 
 enemy's approach. Already I had heard 
 that the enemy were streaming out of the 
 Lahore Gate to attack me. 
 
 These buildings were detached, but they 
 were only twenty or thirty yards apart, and 
 I could readily talk from the one I was in to 
 the next one. We barricaded the doors, and 
 I posted most of the men on the roof, 
 because some cover could be obtained from 
 the three-foot parapets which were round 
 the roofs of all these houses. On the first 
 floor of my house there was only one door 
 facing the road and, like all native doors, it 
 was very small, and evidently had been con- 
 nected with the ground by a ladder which 
 had been destroyed. 
 
 As we had no entrenching tools whatever, 
 I went to this doorway to examine the thick- 
 ness of the wall and to see if the men could 
 loophole it with their bayonets. While I 
 
 41 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 was standing in the doorway about twenty 
 sepoys fired a volley at me from the other 
 side of the road. The bullets hit both the 
 woodwork on which I was standing and 
 that which my head was touching. They 
 smashed against the brick wall by the side of 
 my ear, and one bullet took me in the thigh 
 diagonally and came out near my hip, 
 and another hit a man by the name of James 
 Hartley in the iliac artery. 
 
 At the moment I had my naked sword in 
 my left hand, for the scabbard had been 
 shot away. The volley made me start so 
 violently that I drove my sword right 
 through my left foot and through the 
 sole of my boot, but of this I knew nothing 
 whatever until some time afterwards. 
 
 I limped back from the doorway to find 
 that my young subaltern and my colour- 
 sergeant Noon were both crying. Language 
 cannot express my feelings of rage at these 
 men for shedding tears because I had been 
 hit. I grabbed a pugaree, put a bullet into 
 it, and made a rough tourniquet of it, 
 twisting it very tight with a man's bayonet. 
 Shortly afterwards I became conscious that 
 James Hartley was bleeding to death. I 
 saw the jetting of the artery, and getting 
 down I put my thumb on it. Then, with 
 the assistance of one of the men, I got 
 42 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 another pugaree and another bullet and tied 
 him up as well as I could. 
 
 During this time I was both in frightful 
 pain and as angry as a man can be. But 
 in the way of misfortune things had reached 
 a climax, for shortly afterwards we cleared 
 the enemy off the opposite side of the road, 
 and eventually they retired. When all was 
 quiet again I posted my men carefully, and 
 improved as far as was possible the facilities 
 for firing to the front. Having also seen to 
 the other buildings, I could not go on any 
 longer, so I told Pay-Sergeant Brady that I 
 should want him to come with me to 
 Hindoo Rao's. 
 
 Leaning on Brady's shoulder, and using 
 my sword as a walking-stick, I started and 
 staggered along for perhaps a hundred yards. 
 Then I felt that the only thing in the world 
 for me to do was to sit down, and while I 
 was resting on a conveniently low wall a 
 spent grape-shot took me in the back between 
 the shoulder-blades, and knocked all the 
 breath out of me. 
 
 Struggle as I would I found that I could 
 not get up the hill to the main picket, so 
 when I had recovered breath enough to 
 move I came in the rear of Hindoo Rao's. 
 This was just the spot round which all the 
 shells fell which had missed Hindoo Rao's, 
 
 43 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 and having reached this inhospitable place, 
 I discovered that I could not walk another 
 yard. So, having sent Brady up the hill to 
 get a hospital dooly, I lay down and waited. 
 
 There was, however, to be no good for- 
 tune for me on that day. Indeed Brady had 
 scarcely gone before the enemy appeared on 
 the other side of this plain, and seeing that 
 I was the only object in the foreground, they 
 immediately opened fire upon me. In the 
 face of what seemed to me a terrific viru- 
 lent hailstorm I crawled behind the biggest 
 thistle I could find, and lay down with my 
 head towards the enemy. 
 
 Now this bit of flat ground was com- 
 manded by the inlying picket, where, on 
 a mound, an 8-inch howitzer and an i8- 
 poundcr had been placed. These weapons 
 had been discarded from the front because, 
 from constant firing, their vents had become 
 enlarged. I did not, however, know this 
 interesting fact, and so, while I lay behind 
 my thistle attracting an attention which I 
 was far from appreciating, I cursed the 
 officer in command for not opening fire 
 upon my assailants. 
 
 Afterwards I was told that the officer was 
 waiting lor a fancy shot, because as more 
 and more ol the enemy came up to have a 
 pot at me he completely enfiladed them. 
 
 44 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 At last he let fly, and one round of grape 
 trom the howitzer and a shot from the i8- 
 pounder did so much damage that not 
 another shot was fired at me. 
 
 By this time Brady, with a dooly and 
 four bearers, had come down from Hindoo 
 Rao's, and when they had put down the 
 dooly I managed to crawl into it. Hardly 
 had I done so when a shell from Delhi 
 pitched right into the ground underneath 
 the dooly, whereupon the men, who were 
 just getting me on their shoulders, dropped 
 me on the top of the shell and fled. My 
 first — and very natural — idea was to move, 
 but I was in such pain that I could not. So 
 I just waited, and I can most truthfully say 
 that I did not care. I had gone through so 
 much during the last few hours that to be 
 sitting on the top of a shell seemed to be 
 absolutely unalarming. As, however, nothing 
 happened, the men soon returned and walked 
 off with me. The hole in the ground was 
 there for anyone to see, but luckily for us 
 the fuse must have blown out. Without 
 any more adventures or misadventures I at 
 last reached the hospital. 
 
 There they probed the wound to get a 
 part of my trousers out of the hole, and in 
 the process gave me hospital gangrene, for 
 there was no antiseptic treatment of any 
 
 45 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 kind. They also discovered that my left 
 boot was full of blood, and when they had 
 cut it off I knew, for the first time, that the 
 point of my sword had gone right through 
 my foot. The doctor then told me that the 
 hospital was already too full, and that it was 
 best for me to be carried to my tent. 
 
 My wound was dressed only every other 
 day, and I had to lie on a little charpoy, 
 about four feet in length, on which I re- 
 mained until the beginning of August. Then 
 the senior surgeon came to me and said, 
 " Look here, Harris, your leg will be no 
 use to you in that crooked state. You had 
 better let me divide everything underneath 
 the l<;nee, and give you a straight leg for 
 life." To this I agreed at once, but when 
 he began to spread out his knives and other 
 paraphernalia, I changed my mind. " If 
 you go cutting and carving me any more," 
 I told him, " I shall go under. If I must 
 have it done, won't it be better to send me 
 up to the depot, where I can have it cut off 
 in a good climate, and without any files to 
 bother me .? " 
 
 " Quite right, Harris," he replied, and 
 immediately began to shut up his knives. 
 
 The result of this was that a medical 
 board was ordered, and on that same evening 
 I started, with Jim Daniel, of the ist 
 46 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 Fusiliers, in an " anna-a-miler " for Kurnaul. 
 Daniel had been badly wounded in the 
 right forearm, and we were put into this 
 conveyance in such a way that I could not 
 move, and it may well be imagined what a 
 trying journey this was for us both. 
 
 We reached the dak bungalow in the 
 morning, and the change was so delightful 
 that we both began to improve immediately, 
 and I exercised myself by crawling about 
 the floor. The monsoon was now in full 
 swing, and altogether we spent three days 
 in reaching Umballa, the last part of our 
 journey being taken in a dooly. Owing to 
 long disuse my legs, always very slight below 
 the knee, had become a sight for curious 
 beholders. Every bit of muscle I had ever 
 had seemed to have faded away, and the cry 
 of " Come and have a look at Jim Harris's 
 legs " was a common one in camp. 
 
 We stayed with Dr. Jowett in Umballa 
 for a few days, and very kind he was to us. 
 From Umballa we travelled by dooly to 
 Kalka, and from there by janpan to 
 Subathoo. 
 
 When we were approaching the station 
 the first man I saw was our young assistant 
 surgeon, John Wilson, who had been left in 
 charge of the depot. " What have you 
 come up for ? " he asked me. 
 
 47 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 " Because the surgeon says you ought to 
 divide everything under my knee, and give 
 me a straight leg. He told me that this one 
 will never be any use," I replied. 
 
 "Oh," he returned, "it will be time 
 enough to do that when there is nothing 
 else to be done." 
 
 My leg, however, was as firm as a rock, 
 and I assured him that he would never get 
 it to straighten out. 
 
 The quiet of this little hill station was 
 astounding to me, and I quickly became 
 aware that I had such things as nerves. 
 While I had been lying for long weeks on 
 that wretched little charpoy at Delhi, I had 
 been well braced up and ready for anything. 
 The sound of firing had been my constant 
 companion, sometimes coming very near, 
 sometimes far off. These sounds must have 
 stimulated me, for if I could only have 
 moved I should have been happy enough. 
 But now I jumped at a sound, and could not 
 understand the reason. 
 
 The morning after we arrived two 
 natives came down from the hospital when 
 I was lying on my charpoy, and said that 
 the Doctor Sahib had sent them to rub 
 my knee with oil. 
 
 " Rub my grandmother," I replied un- 
 graciously, but I let them rub me for an 
 48 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 hour, and then the doctor, with two 
 assistants, appeared. Thereupon I was 
 strapped into what they called an " Ames- 
 bury's patent fracture apparatus," which 
 fitted me from the sole of my foot to my 
 hip-bone. It had a sort of wheel and axle 
 acting underneath the knee-joint, which 
 enlarged the angle, and they turned this 
 until I could bear no more. In this 
 machine I lived from sunrise to sunset for 
 two months. 
 
 D 49 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 An expedition through the hill States : Frost-bite and 
 snow-blindness ; An avalanche : For once I get the 
 better of Lord William Hay 
 
 MY leg became fairly straight after 
 this, but it lost all retractile 
 power. I was, however, able 
 to go up to Simla in a janpan, 
 and soon afterwards found that I could leave 
 off one of my crutches. 
 
 Hodson's wife was up at Simla, and gave 
 a most remarkable dinner party while I was 
 there. Fourteen of us sat down to dinner, 
 but only two of us were able to cut up our 
 meat ! 
 
 Delhi was taken by the middle of 
 September, and I determined to join my 
 regiment if it was going on any further 
 service ; but I found that the regiment was 
 to be left in garrison. Order was quickly 
 restored in Delhi and the neighbourhood. 
 
 Towards the end of the month Lord 
 William Hay asked me to go with him on 
 a tour through the hill States — an offer 
 which I gladly accepted. We started durinti; 
 the first week in October, and, after march- 
 ing for ten or twelve days, we came to a 
 beautiful village. Thence we sent back our 
 ponies and heavy baggage by Hay's bearer, 
 
 5° 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 and told him to join us at the bungalow 
 at Chini, which had been built in the 
 Sutlej valley by Lord Dalhousie, the late 
 Governor-General of India. 
 
 The next day we began the ascent of 
 the Boorungathi pass, over 15,000 feet high. 
 Having reached the limit of the birch, we 
 camped at 12,000 feet in the snow. The 
 pass had been closed on August 9, and every 
 approach to it from the Indian side was 
 through deep snow. 
 
 Warmed by hot coffee and toast, we 
 started for the pass early next morning, and 
 very hard work we found it. Indeed, " three 
 steps and lie down " may be said to have 
 been our programme. Forty men, without 
 loads, were sent on ahead to make a path, 
 and I had half a dozen men or more to pull 
 me. They, however, were as useless at 
 pulling as I was at climbing, and by the 
 time I reached the top I was so exhausted 
 that I said to myself, " If the pass is like 
 this, and of any length, I shall never get 
 through." 
 
 It was, therefore, an immense relief to 
 find that the pass was wind-swept and only 
 some forty yards across. By this time Hay, 
 having some fine men with him who really 
 were a help, was two hours ahead of me. 
 But the way was now down-hill, and I 
 
 51 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 made some very long slides and was able to 
 rejoin Hay in the evening at a sster/ 
 
 For hours I had not had any feeling in my 
 feet, and on taking off my boots and stock- 
 ings I found that my feet were badly frost- 
 bitten. So, while I was eating the largest/>t7// 
 de foie gras I have ever seen, and drinking a 
 bottle of champagne, Hay sent two natives 
 to rub my legs with snow. I thought that 
 I was bound to lose some portion of my feet, 
 but in three weeks they were all right again. 
 Three of our men lost their toes, the reason 
 being that they would light fires and warm 
 them. 
 
 We turned in to spend the night in a 
 hay-loft, but as soon as the light was put out 
 we were in agony from snow-blindness. On 
 the next day Hay could not bear the light, 
 and for forty-eight hours I had to keep him 
 in darkness. My eyes being very strong, 
 I did not suffer so much, and also I had tied 
 a blue handkerchief round my head during 
 most of the time we had been in the snow. 
 
 We were now up in very high land, and 
 both of us felt magnificently fit. Each day 
 we marched about thirty miles quite easily, 
 and presently reached the borders of Tibet. 
 The country was entirely Buddhist, and we 
 
 ' A place where the people keep and milk their cows in 
 summer. 
 
 52 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 passed several fine monasteries. At one of 
 these the monks held a service for us, a sort 
 of high mass, with a lot of weird brass 
 instruments of music. Possibly I was mis- 
 taken, but I must say that these monks did 
 not seem to be in the least devout. Alto- 
 gether we covered a good deal of country 
 and crossed two high passes, which are, 
 I have been told, higher than Mont Blanc ; 
 but as they were not so deeply covered with 
 snow, we made light of them. 
 
 Returning by the Sutlej valley, we reached 
 the bungalow, which was situated in a 
 beautiful spot sloping down through easy- 
 terraced cultivation to the river ; and there 
 we were met by our ponies and baggage. 
 On the other side of the river lay the village 
 of Poaree, which nestled at the foot of the 
 tremendous Khylas peaks. These peaks are 
 24,000 feet high, and their sides, to a height 
 of about 12,000 feet, are clothed with grand 
 forests of deodars. 
 
 This bungalow was only 120 to 130 miles 
 from Simla, and as Hay had a chuprassie 
 who could do his ninety miles a day in a 
 go-as-you-please style, we soon got our 
 letters. Then I found that my regiment 
 was still garrisoned at Delhi, and that there 
 was no necessity for me to rejoin until the 
 expiration of my leave. 
 
 53 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 We had only been at the bungalow 
 for a short time when, whilst writing on 
 the verandah, we suddenly heard a most 
 terrific noise. It seemed to me like whole 
 batteries of guns being thrown down the 
 rocks. Hay shouted to me, " Look over 
 there, Jim, at that avalanche." I looked 
 across at the mountains, but my eyes were 
 trying to find one spot, and several seconds 
 passed before I realised that this avalanche 
 was tearing through the enormous forest of 
 deodars over a width of nearly two miles. 
 I have never seen a more wonderful or more 
 impressive sight. 
 
 Leaving the bungalow, we soon parted 
 from the Sutlej, and had to go a long way 
 round to get back to it. The river itself 
 flowed through a quite impassable country, 
 but we came to it again at the Wangtoo 
 Bridge. This bridge belonged to the Rajah 
 of Busahir, who lived at Rampur, about fifty 
 miles below. It crossed the river just 
 beneath the spot where the Sutlej comes 
 through the main chain of the Himalayas. 
 The Sutlej comes through a terrific gorge 
 at about an angle of 45°, and carries boulders 
 of ten and twenty tons like marbles. 
 
 At a place where the rocks on either side 
 made the stream narrower, the Rajah had 
 placed three tiers of large tree trunks on 
 
 54 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 both banks, one tier above another, and each 
 one projecting from the one below it. On 
 the top of these, stretching from one bank 
 to the other, he had placed the largest deodar 
 in the country. 
 
 The approaches on each side were covered 
 with earth, and the tree itself had footholds, 
 which had been cut with native adzes for 
 bare-footed people to cross over. 
 
 There had always been a pleasant rivalry 
 between Hay and myself about riding across 
 impossible (or, at any rate, unlikely) places. 
 He being my senior, and I being only a 
 " griff," he was inclined to show me what 
 horrible places could be ridden over if only 
 one had the audacity to try. At this time 
 he had a most beautiful pair of grey ponies, 
 Shalka and Shamma, and he was riding one 
 and I the other. 
 
 I was a fair distance ahead of Hay when 
 I came to the bridge, and I started to cross 
 it. When I reached the middle of it I did 
 not think it possible to go any farther, for 
 the tree began to taper considerably towards 
 the other side. I remember taking my feet 
 almost out of the stirrups, and, while keeping 
 the reins from hanging, I put both hands on 
 my pony's withers, meaning, if he slipped, to 
 throw myself back and try to land astride 
 on the tree. As far as I could see there 
 
 55 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 seemed to be nothing in front of the pony for 
 him to walk upon. But we got across. 
 
 When Hay came to the bridge he con- 
 sulted with his hill people and the Rajah's 
 head man. The latter said, " No man has 
 ever ridden across this bridge. Nobody 
 has ever tried to. They say that your friend 
 has ridden across it, but do not attempt to 
 follow him." 
 
 Hay dismounted, and with men holding 
 ropes in front and behind him, he walked 
 across in his stockinged feet. Then he came 
 up and asked me if I had ridden across, and 
 after I had answered he turned away and 
 said no more. But that was the only time I 
 ever got the better of him. 
 
 Only a few years ago, when I was at the 
 Delhi dinner on June 8, Colonel L. WavcU 
 came to me and said, " Are you the man 
 who rode over the Wancrtoo .? " And when 
 I said "Yes," he replied, "I wonder how 
 you could ! I came to that bridge on my 
 way back from Kooloo ; my leave was nearly 
 up and I had no time to spare. Yet I stayed 
 two days before I could make up my mind 
 to cross. Finally I went over on my hands 
 and knees ! " 
 
 56 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Young "bloods" : A risky ride : Ill-feeling : I win 
 some money and lose it again 
 
 PROCEEDING on our tour, Hay and 
 I got down to Rampur, where there 
 was a long reach of level water and 
 I found another method of crossing 
 the Sutlej. The natives crossed on mussuks, 
 and a mussuk was the skin of a cow blown 
 out with air and the neck of it made air- 
 tight. The ferryman lay across this, and if 
 you wanted to go to the other side of the 
 river you sat on the small of his back and 
 kept your feet on the skin. To me this 
 method had the advantage of being delight- 
 fully simple and easy. 
 
 I have not remarked upon the sport which 
 we enjoyed during this trip, but the Rajahs 
 of every State always made a point of giving 
 us a big drive. On the whole our bag 
 was a very fair one, and consisted of a few 
 bears and some small game which included 
 many different kinds of the Himalayan 
 pheasant. 
 
 We got back to Simla in the first week of 
 January 1858, and I went to stay with 
 Dr. Peskett, who was the Civil Surgeon, 
 and his charming wife. Now Peskett was 
 a great man for good ponies, and had, in 
 
 SI 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 fact, more of them than he could exercise. 
 So one afternoon he said to me, " I wish you 
 would exercise a pony I have got. He is a 
 very good one and came originally from 
 Spiti " — which place was about as far up 
 towards Tibet as Hay and I had been. 
 
 The pony was a dun, about 14.1, with a 
 black mane and tail, and very powerful. I 
 rode him along the Mall at a sharp canter, 
 and thought that Peskett's opinion of him 
 was quite correct. The afternoon was damp 
 and drizzly, and as I rode up to the reading- 
 room I found a group of all the young 
 bloods in Simla — Bashi Bazouk Evans, 
 Johnny Chadwick of the 9th Lancers, 
 Fawcett of the Bays, King Harman, 
 Edwardes of the Rifles, and some others. 
 
 On the other side of the Mall, opposite 
 to the rooms, was a high wall ; and set, as 
 it were, in the wall was a flight of steps, 
 bound with wood and about sixty feet high. 
 So narrow were the steps that I could only 
 just get half my foot on any one of them, 
 and each step was some thirteen inches in 
 height. These steps led up to the Pavilion 
 Hotel, and they used to come down every 
 year during the rains. 
 
 When I joined the group I have men- 
 tioned, I heard someone say, " You won't 
 believe it, but I saw a native horse-dealer 
 58 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 ride up those steps on a little twelve-hand 
 pony this morning." I do not know what 
 made me say what I did, but I promptly 
 replied, " I do not think much of that. I'll 
 ride up — and down them, too — if you will 
 make it worth my while." These young 
 bloods clearly thought that they had found 
 an easy way to make money, for in a moment 
 one of them said, " I bet you 500 rupees you 
 don't," and then another added, " And I'll 
 bet you 400." Then three others joined in 
 with offers to bet me 400, .200, and 100 
 rupees. 
 
 " Have you all done ? I'll take the lot of 
 you. Stand back and give me room," was 
 my reply, when no more bets seemed to be 
 forthcoming. 
 
 Now, owing to the narrowness of the 
 Mall opposite to the steps, I could not get a 
 straight run at them, so I took a slant and 
 rushed the pony towards them. I got up 
 to the top directly, for my mount was 
 extremely strong, but to come down was 
 altogether a different matter. 
 
 On the top there was a small plateau, not 
 much bigger than a large dining-table, and 
 on this I turned the pony round and looked 
 down. The view, however, only made me 
 think that I had made a fool of myself, for it 
 seemed to me that we simply must topple 
 
 59 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 over while attempting to make such a steep 
 descent. However, I made up my mind 
 that if the pony put his foot down the 
 first step he should go. He started all 
 right and, sitting quite still, I went down 
 with the greatest ease, for he sat down 
 behind, and descended by using his fore- 
 legs only, his hind feet being on each side 
 of my face. 
 
 When we were about half-way down, one 
 of the men below called out, " Well, I value 
 my life at more than a thousand rupees " 
 — a sneer which leads me to add that, after 
 the Mutiny, there was a good deal of ill- 
 feeling between the Queen's officers and 
 those of the Company's army. The former 
 pretended to look down upon us, because we 
 were Company's officers, and also because 
 the Army had mutinied. 
 
 I never have been able to put up with 
 that sort of thing, so I felt that I had not 
 spent quite an agreeable afternoon. On the 
 next morning I was paid the whole of 
 my money, and I lost it again at loo the 
 next night. 
 
 This feeling between the forces lasted for 
 some years, and did not die out until the 
 Queen took over the whole army. We of 
 the Company's European Regiment were 
 the more annoyed at the contempt showered 
 60 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 upon us because we had not mutinied, and 
 we were immensely proud of our regiment, 
 which we considered to be better dressed, 
 better drilled, and more tit for hard work 
 than the Line. 
 
 6i 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Digging for treasure in Delhi : Prize auctions : I gain 
 some valuable knowledge : The old King and his 
 habits : On leave : Richard Shebbeare : I join 
 the 15th Punjabees : Our journey to Lucknow : 
 Examinations : The Nana and a letter to W. H. 
 Fitchett 
 
 LEAVING Simla, I rejoined my regi- 
 ment at Delhi in the first week of 
 J February, and found that all my 
 brother officers were quartered in 
 the palace. I myself was given a couple of 
 rooms in the Zenana of the King. The 
 quarter-guard was near the Dewan Khas, 
 next to which we all lived, the 60th Rifles 
 and ourselves dividing the duties between us. 
 
 It was here that, shortly after my arrival, 
 it was written up in chalk, " Delhi taken 
 and India saved for 36 rupees, 12 annas." 
 My memory may play me false about the 
 exact amount, but the one I have given is 
 approximately correct. It meant that, by 
 the orders of the Government, the troops 
 engaged were allowed six months' batta. 
 This simple sentence was sent to England 
 and appeared in the newspapers, with the 
 result that the Government immediately 
 gave us another six months' batta. 
 
 The city and the neighbourhood were 
 quite quiet by this time, although, if one 
 62 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 went out early in the morning, twenty or 
 thirty natives could be seen hanging in the 
 Chandni Chonk. 
 
 Life was rather dull, but we could get 
 leave from the prize agents to dig for 
 treasure, on a percentage, in the houses of 
 rebels. I unluckily never found anything, 
 but I remember digging in the house of a 
 man called Achmit Pie. I dug on a Monday 
 on one side of the lintel of an inner room 
 and found nothing. On the following 
 Wednesday somebody else, acting on better 
 information, dug on the other side of the 
 doorway and found 60,000 rupees and three 
 bottles of quicksilver. 
 
 Our greatest excitement was to attend 
 the prize auctions, which were held twice a 
 week in a large hall. The procedure was 
 as follows : The auctioneer and his men, 
 accompanied by one of the agents, brought 
 in several large boxes, which contained all 
 sorts of jewellery and treasures. Most of 
 the Europeans and some of the loyal natives 
 sat at a very long table, while others stood 
 around. The auctioneer produced three old 
 soup plates, worth, about zd. each. These 
 he filled from the boxes, and each plate was 
 passed round for us to inspect ; then it was 
 put up to auction and knocked down to the 
 highest bidder. 
 
 63 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 I attended a great number of these 
 auctions, and at various times bought many 
 soup plates at very various prices, my maxi- 
 mum, I think, being 1200 rupees for a 
 plateful. I often wish I had kept my pur- 
 chases, for they would be worth a great deal 
 more now than I ever got for them. The 
 native jewellers used to come round to our 
 quarters nearly every day, squat on the floor 
 beside their jewellery, which was all more 
 or less adapted for the European market, 
 and either try to buy our purchases or get 
 us to exchange them for their own wares. 
 These natives doubtless got very much the 
 best of it, but I gained a knowledge of values 
 which was subsequently to be of consider- 
 able service to me. 
 
 One of our duties — and it amused me — 
 was very often to be on guard over the old 
 King, Bahadur Shah, the last of the Great 
 Moguls. He had two of his wives with 
 him and his youngest son, Jumma Bukht. 
 Our orders were to see him personally at 
 least three times a day. He and I had many 
 talks together, and he was, I think, quite a 
 harmless old man, whose chief delight was 
 to make Persian poetry. 
 
 His son, however, seemed to be just a 
 common kind of scoundrel, whose three 
 elder brothers, as all the world knows, had 
 64 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 been captured early in the siege, and shot 
 by Hodson, near Humayon's tomb. Hodson 
 has been cruelly blamed for this action, but 
 I feel sure that every man in the camp, of 
 my acquaintance at least, would have been 
 glad of such a chance. I most certainly 
 should. 
 
 The old King used to be very violently 
 and daily sick into a gold basin. But when 
 I offered him my sympathy, he assured me 
 that there was no cause, as, for the last two- 
 and-thirty years, he could not eat his dinner 
 until he had gone through this perform- 
 ance. 
 
 In the late spring the Colonel gave me 
 three months' leave, and asked me to go up 
 to Subathoo to take to pieces and pack up 
 the billiard table, and send it down to Delhi. 
 From want of skilled labour I experienced 
 some difficulty over this job, but at last I 
 despatched the table to Delhi, and then went 
 up to Simla. 
 
 There I made the acquaintance of Robert 
 Shebbear^, who had received orders from 
 the Punjab Government to raise a regiment 
 of Musbee Sikhs — a low-caste kind of Sikh, 
 that had not previously been enlisted by the 
 Government. I saw a great deal of Sheb- 
 beare, and admired him very much. He 
 had belonged to the 6oth Native Infantry, 
 
 E 65 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 which was one of the regiments that had 
 mutinied at Umballa. 
 
 Shebbeare asked me if I would like to 
 join his regiment, the 15th Punjabees, and 
 I was only too delighted to accept his offer. 
 The regiment was then on the march down 
 to Lucknow, under the second in command, 
 Lieutenant W. Randall. Shebbeare, the 
 Pesketts, and I rode across the hills to Mus- 
 soorie, and half way there we had to cross 
 the Tons river on a single rope ; hung on 
 this rope was a little bit of V-shaped hard 
 wood, from the two ends of which a loop 
 depended, and in this we sat and were pulled 
 across by a string. I was greatly pleased 
 because Mrs. Peskett asked me to carry her 
 baby over. 
 
 From Mussoorie we went down by dak- 
 gharrie as quickly as possible to Lucknow, 
 and we joined the regiment at Ali Nuckee 
 Khan's house in the first week of Septem- 
 ber 1858. This house was an enormous 
 place, and held the whole of the regiment 
 (about 840 men) quite easily. Sir Hope 
 Grant was in command at Lucknow, and 
 Wolseley was his Quartermaster-General. I 
 saw a great deal of these officers, especially 
 of Wolseley. 
 
 An unwelcome surprise awaited me in 
 Lucknow, for a General Order was issued 
 66 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 to the effect that all officers, except those 
 belonging to European regiments, must pass 
 the P.H. examination or go back to their 
 regiments. Up to this time I had never 
 bothered about examinations, and indeed had 
 never passed one in my life, for on entering 
 the service all that had been required of me 
 was a medical certificate, and that was given 
 me by our old family doctor. 
 
 Now, however, I had to set to work, and 
 just what might have happened if the exami- 
 nation had not been easy and my command- 
 ing officer one of the examining committee 
 is not worth guessing. At any rate my com- 
 manding officer announced openly that he 
 was not going to allow his Adjutant to be 
 spun. But in spite of this assurance I was 
 greatly relieved when I found that I had 
 passed, and could therefore be confirmed as 
 Adjutant of the 15th. 
 
 In the cold weather of '58-'59, I was 
 sent off with three companies of Sikhs, and 
 joined the army which was pursuing the 
 Nana, at Byram Ghat. In connection with 
 the Nana I beg leave to insert a letter which 
 I wrote to the Rev. W. H. Fitchett in 1907 : 
 
 " History never yet has been written, and 
 never will be, without mistakes, and I am 
 not concerned to rectify trifles. One thing 
 only I would mention, as I am sure it would 
 
 67 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 be interesting to you, and it is known only 
 to my family and to a few friends, mostly, 
 if not all, dead. You say : ' No one knows 
 where or how the Nana died.' I will tell 
 you ; but to do so I must give you a short 
 sketch of myself. 
 
 " I was a subaltern in the 2nd E.B. 
 Fusiliers, and returned to India from sick 
 leave in England, in the cold weather of 
 ' 5^~' S7 ' ^ stayed for some weeks at Cawn- 
 pore on my way up to join my regiment at 
 Umballa. I knew the Nana quite well, 
 having been introduced to him at Cawnpore 
 as far back as '51. 
 
 " When the Mutiny broke out I was with 
 my regiment at Subathoo, and marched 
 down to Delhi with them. The first fight 
 was at Bad-li-ke-serai, on June 8, and I was 
 on the Ridge, &c., &c., and was badly 
 wounded, and left for Subathoo again, 
 apparently a hopeless cripple. But I got 
 right again, and in 1858 was appointed 
 Adjutant of the 15th Musbee Sikhs, and 
 marched with them to Lucknow, arriving 
 early in October. 
 
 " In November I was ordered, with a 
 detachment of three companies, first to 
 Byram Ghat and then to a ford on the 
 Upper Gogra, called Chilari Ghat. A small 
 party of seventeen Royal Engineers, under 
 68 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 Richard Harrison (now General Sir Richard), 
 presently joined me, with orders to construct 
 a bridge, and a regiment of Pioneers, un- 
 armed, with a lieutenant in command, were 
 sent to help. I commanded the whole. 
 
 " Now these Musbees had never been en- 
 listed by Government before ; they were low- 
 caste men, all — or almost all — expert thieves 
 and trackers. I had a guard of them always 
 at the ford, and lived myself in a tent close 
 by. This ford was only about thirty miles 
 from the Terai, into which the rebel forces 
 with the Nana had been driven, and for the 
 deserters from his force it was the most 
 convenient way by which to get back to 
 Western Oude, or Rohilcund. Moreover, 
 it was the only one where they would not 
 meet some European force. 
 
 " Very shortly I found that, through my 
 native officers, I was thoroughly posted up in 
 all the Nana's movements. There was, as you 
 know, a lac of rupees reward for his head, 
 dead or alive. Two of my subahdars were 
 always at me to allow them three or four 
 days' leave to capture him. They kept me 
 informed of his movements, like a Court 
 Circular. I always told them that I was on 
 duty for a certain purpose, and that it was 
 impossible for me to give any man leave. 
 
 " One Thursday Ram Sing came to me, 
 
 69 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 begging me still more strongly than before, 
 and saying that the Nana was getting much 
 worse — he was, as I knew, suffering from 
 fever and ague, and had an enlarged spleen. 
 Ram Sing also told me that the Nana had 
 had his little finger cut off, and had burnt it 
 as an offering to Kali, with the view of 
 propitiating the goddess. 
 
 " Two days after. Ram Sing and the other 
 subahdar came to me and said : ' No one 
 will get the reward now ; he died and was 
 burnt yesterday.' And I feel quite sure 
 that was true, for I had known for some 
 weeks about all his movements." 
 
 I have regretted ever since that I was, on 
 this occasion, such a stickler for obedience 
 to orders, which were to guard the ford and 
 to protect the bridge about to be built. Had 
 I listened to the advice of native officers, and 
 taken some thirty men and a couple of 
 sowars, with an ekka, I am confident that I 
 should have captured the Nana. And I 
 expect that, if I had been successful, the 
 blame would not have been very much ; 
 while, if I had been lucky enough to get a 
 brevet, the whole of my career would have 
 been altered. 
 
 The bridge was built principally of very 
 large bamboos, and just when it was finished 
 the river changed its course. This occurred 
 70 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 two or three times, so the necessity for the 
 bridge having apparently passed away, we 
 were recalled to Byram Ghat. There we 
 found a considerable force, and I was directed 
 to assume charge of the treasure-chest, which 
 meant that I was to find the money from 
 the Civil Government for the pay of the 
 troops. Now, by the Bengal regulations, I 
 was entitled to 300 rupees a month for doing 
 this, but I never got a pice. 
 
 After a month or so the force broke up, 
 and I was ordered to march my detachment 
 to Faizabad and report myself. When 
 about half-way there a terrific storm of rain 
 came on, and the ditches on each side of the 
 road were filled to overflowing. We found 
 these ditches to be full immediately of small 
 fish, like whitebait, which were excellent to 
 eat. As we were milts away from any river, 
 and as the country previously had been quite 
 dry, where these fish came from was, and is, 
 a mystery to me. 
 
 71 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Kaizabad : The Fakir and his powers ; Back to Luck- 
 now : Ordered to China : Irritating delays : A quick 
 steamer : Lively times at Singapore : Arrival in China 
 A sharp but brief dispute Wolseley : In clover ■ Feats 
 of strength : Oysters 
 
 FAIZABAD was a nice place, quite 
 well wooded, and much cooler 
 than Lucknow. The D.A.Q.M.G. 
 gave me leave to camp where I 
 liked near the Grand Parade, so I took 
 possession of a fine Tope of mango trees. 
 
 There were more snakes and scorpions in 
 Faizabad than in any other place I ever saw. 
 Even riding across the parade ground, a per- 
 fectly bare plain without a bit of cover, one 
 would see several snakes curled up, pre- 
 sumably asleep. And I can vouch for the 
 fact that a little bit of carpet, by the side of 
 my charpoy, generally had a scorpion or two 
 underneath it. 
 
 We had just pitched camp and made our- 
 selves comfortable when one of the native 
 officers, who had come up to report " All 
 right," said to me, " Sahib, have you seen 
 the Fakir, sitting between five fires? He 
 sits on the bare plain, between four cow- 
 dimg fires, the sun being the fifth. If you 
 will step up on to this mound [which was 
 72 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 within a few yards of my tent at the corner 
 of the Tope], I will show him to you." 
 
 We stood on the mound, and about 500 
 yards away I saw an object, which was 
 evidently the Fakir. The native officers 
 knew something of the man, and they told 
 me that he was a Sikh of high caste, who 
 had made a vow to sit between five fires 
 from sunrise to sunset, during all the hot 
 season, for nine years. They also suggested 
 that if I wished to see him after sunset, 
 I should find the Fakir seated in a chair on 
 the open plain dressed in clean white gar- 
 ments, with a disciple near him. His hair 
 was reported to be 18 cubits and his beard 
 I 2 cubits in length. 
 
 I was greatly interested, and on that even- 
 ing, with a couple of native officers and my 
 orderly carrying a chair, I went up and had 
 a talk with the Fakir. He had slight fever, 
 and I asked after his health, and why he 
 went through such tortures. His reply was 
 that he wished to lead the higher life and 
 to obtain powers. Then he took down his 
 beard, which had been done up into a plait 
 on his chin, and placed it in my hand, a 
 mark of very great confidence. It would 
 have been rude to have measured his beard, 
 but I have no doubt that it was, as I had 
 been told, fully 1 8 feet long. 
 
 73 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 We continued to talk, and he told me 
 that he would be free as soon as the rains 
 fell, and that they generally began between 
 June 27 and 30. He wore sandals, with 
 no sides whatever to them, and while we 
 were talking I noticed a large scorpion close 
 to his foot. " Don't move," I said quietly, 
 "there is a scorpion close to your foot." 
 He leant over, saw the scorpion, pointed 
 with his fingers in its direction, and imme- 
 diately it shrivelled up and died. 
 
 " You seem to have some powers already," 
 I remarked, but he simply waved the matter 
 aside as being of no importance. 
 
 My interview with the Fakir took place 
 in May, and we had a very wet march back 
 to Lucknow, where we arrived in the middle 
 of July '59, and rejoined the regiment. 
 
 Parades, mess dinners, races, and the usual 
 routine of cantonment life made the time 
 pass until the cold weather began. Then 
 Sir Hope Grant informed us that a force of 
 10,000 men from India was to go to China 
 in the early spring, and that our regiment was 
 to go, because the Government particularly 
 wished to test these Mushee Sikhs. ; . r 
 
 This was delightful news, but a long time 
 went by before we started. We heard of 
 other regiments marching down to Calcutta 
 and going off, and wondered whether we 
 
 74 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 should be left behind. At last, however, we 
 marched down the Grand Trunk road, and 
 arrived at Calcutta in January. There again 
 we were delayed, and had the mortification 
 of seeing all the other troops sent off to 
 China before us. 
 
 At length the regiment was ordered to 
 embark on a P. & O. paddle-steamer, but 
 she could not hold all of us, so once more 
 I had the vexation of being left behind in 
 charge of about 130 men. Eight young 
 officers had been attached to us for service 
 in China, one to each company, and Sheb- 
 beare, always good-natured, gave me my 
 choice, as I, at least, was entitled to one of 
 them. I chose Fred Sotheby, of the Rifle 
 Brigade, and he was my chum through the 
 whole campaign. 
 
 Eventually we embarked, though we were 
 the last of the force to start, but we had the 
 luck to go in the screw-steamer Lightning. 
 She was an opium clipper, engaged in the 
 trade of smuggling opium into China, and 
 one of the fastest vessels afloat. So by the 
 time we got to Singapore we had left half 
 the force behind us. 
 
 We were detained at Singapore for several 
 days, and had a most lively time. One 
 hundred and fifty transports were in the 
 Straits, besides many vessels of the Royal 
 
 75 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Navy. Every night v^e used to dine on 
 shore, and some of those dinners were as 
 merry as they were unceremonious. The 
 fact was that we youngsters were rather 
 offended at the tone of the senior officers of 
 the Navy towards their younger officers, 
 and when we suspected that they were 
 trying to snub us we determined not to 
 submit to their rudeness. 
 
 I remember that at a big dinner at the 
 Oriental, one of the largest hotels, we cheered 
 the French admiral most vociferously, and 
 then chaired him all round the table. Later 
 on, we tossed the landlord in his own blanket 
 and in front of his own entrance door. 
 
 Transports were leaving every day for 
 Hong Kong, but we were no longer annoyed 
 at being left behind because we knew that 
 we could catch them up ; and the Lightning 
 turned out to be the first vessel to arrive in 
 China. From the date of our arrival all the 
 troops were put on Indian pay, a circum- 
 stance which pleased everyone and took 
 place on April 17. 
 
 We landed at Kowloon, on the mainland, 
 just opposite to Hong Kong. It was then 
 nothing but grass ; now I believe it is entirely 
 covered with houses. There we soon made 
 ourselves at home, for we had our tents with 
 us. Troops of all sorts were continually 
 76 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 coming in, and very soon quite a large force 
 was collected there. 
 
 After five weeks or so transport after 
 transport began to sail for the north, our 
 destination being Ta-lien-whan, in Man- 
 churia. Again, however, I was left behind. 
 The regiment went off, as before, in the 
 Bentinck^ but now I had four companies 
 with me, and Shebbeare having been in- 
 valided home, I was left in command. 
 Nevertheless I was far from satisfied at 
 being left behind. 
 
 Then, when I was brooding over my dis- 
 appointment, I suddenly got an order from 
 Wolseley, Quartermaster-General of the 
 Force, to take my Sikhs and command the 
 troops on board the Imperatrice. Now the 
 hnperatrice was the finest transport of all, 
 and had been employed to lay the Red Sea 
 cable. A small steamer took us alongside, 
 and I, going on board first, was received at 
 the gangway by an officer, who gave his 
 name as Major B . 
 
 " Are you Lieutenant Harris ? " he asked, 
 and when I had admitted that I was, he asked 
 me if I had come to command the troops on 
 board. Again I replied with the solid word 
 " Yes," and then he continued: " I must tell 
 you, sir, that we object to being commanded 
 by a subaltern. We have two or three 
 
 11 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 majors, two colonels, and several captains on 
 board belonging to the Commissariat or Land 
 Transport Column, We have no objection 
 to your having the best cabin, but w^e 
 object to being commanded by a subaltern." 
 " Well," I replied, " I have my orders and 
 am going to command. I think the best 
 plan will be to go down below at once, and 
 see to the accommodation for all these troops. 
 I understand that there will be two thousand 
 men on board, and detachments of the Artil- 
 lery and of all the regiments that have gone 
 on. When I have made my arrangements I 
 will come up to the saloon, and will then 
 issue my orders. You will, of course, do 
 just as you think right, but you will have to 
 give me your decision in writing." 
 
 When I returned from my duties several 
 of the seniors said that they did not object 
 to my orders as orders, but that they would 
 not be commanded by a junior officer. And 
 when they had written down something to 
 this effect, I gave it to my orderly and sent 
 it off at once to Wolseley. 
 
 We played whist and spent quite a pleasant 
 evening together. They were, indeed, a 
 capital lot of fellows, and before the evening 
 was over I was able to chaff them about the 
 wigging I thought that they would get on 
 the morrow. And my expectations were 
 
 78 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 realised, for about 7 a.m. on the next morn- 
 ing Wolseley and the Adjutant-General and 
 a lot of the staff came on board. 
 
 Wolseley immediately took me aside and 
 said, " I say, Jim, don't make it too hard for 
 these fellows. You know they are senior, 
 but they are all non-combatant, and you 
 have to command." 
 
 "My dear fellow," I answered, "I am 
 sure it will be all right, but I could not go 
 on, you see, until the point was settled. 
 It is quite evident that someone must 
 command, and as I have got the order 
 I am going to do so." 
 
 " Well," Wolseley assured me, " they are 
 
 going to get the d est wigging they 
 
 have ever had in their lives." 
 
 After this, I never had any more trouble, 
 and everything went as smoothly as possible. 
 I had a cabin fit for a king, and a boat 
 of four oars at my disposal day and night. 
 Altogether I was in clover. I do not sup- 
 pose that we went very fast, as we had four 
 transports and a gunboat in tow, but there 
 was no particular hurry, and in the course 
 of time we arrived at Ta-lien-whan, a mag- 
 nificent harbour, almost landlocked, and 
 some seventy miles around. 
 
 We landed about 8000 men, where the 
 town of Dalny now stands. At that time 
 
 79 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 there was only a small Tartar village, the 
 inhabitants of which kept us well supplied 
 with mutton and vegetables. They also 
 took great interest in the Sikhs, and never 
 missed a single parade. In our regiment we 
 had a good many wrestlers, and the Tartars 
 were delighted to see them going through 
 their exercises. 
 
 We had, also, an enormous mugdur,' 
 which only our strongest men could raise 
 above their heads. The villagers were most 
 anxious to try this feat, and greatly to the 
 astonishment of the Sikhs every Tartar 
 lifted the mugdur quite easily. Then they 
 brought a big stone and put it on the 
 parade ground, but not one of our men 
 could lift it, though half a dozen of the 
 Tartars managed to do so. 
 
 On landing at this place I saw, with great 
 pleasure, that the whole coast was covered 
 with oysters — real natives. I at once sent 
 back a message to the Chief Engineer by 
 the coxswain of the boat I had landed from, 
 asking him to send me a bucket and an 
 oyster-knite. Later on I got a hammer and 
 a chisel, and next morning the beach was 
 a sight with 8000 men eating oysters. Not 
 only the troops, but many of the Royal 
 Navy and the crews of the transports joined 
 
 1 InJi.Tn cluh used for exercise. 
 80 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 in the fun. Two days afterwards one had 
 to walk for miles before finding an oyster. 
 
 We stayed at Ta-lien-whan for about five 
 weeks. The climate was glorious, the 
 scenery beautiful, and the food excellent. 
 We had no sickness, and during the whole 
 campaign I do not believe we ever had more 
 than three men at a time in the hospital. 
 Truly, the China campaign of i860 was the 
 most enjoyable picnic in which I have ever 
 taken part. 
 
 81 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Pch-tang : A comfortable rut : The Government pawn- 
 broking establishment : Mud : We take theTaku Forte 
 
 WE did not see much of our cavalry 
 at Ta-lien-whan, for they were 
 on the other side of the great 
 bay. We bought, however, a 
 capital gig from the captain of the Bentmck, 
 and in this we used frequently to sail and row, 
 and made excursions not only to Odin Bay 
 (where the cavalry were), but also to the 
 very inner end of Ta-lien-whan, to a village 
 which became famous in the great campaign 
 between the Japanese and Russians. For 
 there the former won a great battle, pre- 
 paratory to their investment of Port 
 Arthur. 
 
 All this time we were waiting for the 
 French, who were at Chefoo, on the main- 
 land of Shan-tung, but, as far as my memory 
 serves me, I think that we re-embarked in 
 August. No longer was I relegated to the 
 splendid Imphatrice. Indeed, my lot was 
 very different, for I had to embark on the 
 humble Forerunner^ a 600-ton barque, hailing 
 from Sunderland. Her charter-party was 
 but _^5o a day, instead of the ,^500 of the 
 Impcratrice. She just held our left wing, 
 and we had her all to ourselves. I had a 
 82 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 stern cabin, but I could not stand upright 
 in it. 
 
 We sailed out of the great harbour, and 
 formed up in five long lines, each line being 
 headed by one of Her Majesty's ships. 
 Smaller craft were on the right flank. We 
 steamed close past Port Arthur, and, having 
 been joined by the French, we entered the 
 Gulf of Pe-chi-li. Then, having arrived 
 opposite the Taku Forts, we anchored a 
 little to the north of them, in the same long 
 lines, parallel to the shore, at about two 
 miles distant. 
 
 When everything was in order, we sailed 
 north for a few miles up the coast, until we 
 were opposite to a place called Peh-tang, 
 where the water was very shallow. Then, 
 in gunboats, and boats towed by them, we 
 landed on a sand-bank, just under the walls 
 of Peh-tang. Apparently there were a great 
 number of guns on these walls, but all of 
 them turned out to be dummies, and no 
 opposition was made to our landing. The 
 sand on which we landed had more than an 
 inch of water upon it, and, as far as we 
 could judge, the only dry place was a raised 
 road, which evidently went from the gate 
 of Peh-tang to the Taku Forts. We imme- 
 diately steered for this road. 
 
 The General Commanding would not 
 
 83 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 allow us to enter Peh-tang, presumably 
 because it was rather late in the afternoon. 
 Consequently, the whole of the infantry of 
 the First Division lay down to spend the 
 night on the road. The road was covered 
 with charmingly soft mud, and, lying length- 
 ways in a rut with a thin waterproof sheet 
 underneath me, I was as comfortable as 
 anyone could wish to be. Unfortunately, 
 some Tartar cavalry appeared close to us in 
 the middle of the night, and we had all to 
 stand to our arms. When we lay down 
 again two hours afterwards, I had lost the 
 rut which had fitted me so beautifully, and 
 found that I was lying on the slanting bank 
 of the road, and that my feet were con- 
 tinually slipping into the water of the 
 ditch. 
 
 At daylight, the General having discovered 
 that no opposition was to be expected, we 
 all marched into Peh-tang, and found that it 
 was a frightfully dirty place. All the roads 
 were two feet deep in the blackest of mud. 
 
 We, however, were particularly lucky, for 
 the Government pawnbroking establishment 
 was in the street allotted to us, and this 
 building, entirely enclosed within high walls, 
 was quite the best in the town. In it were 
 five or six great warehouses, which contained 
 at least half the furniture, clothing, and 
 84 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 necessaries of all the inhabitants of Peh-tang 
 and its neighbourhood. 
 
 We lived in the gateway, which was the 
 sole entrance to this gigantic emporium. 
 The gateway was paved with blue bricks, 
 and the whole place was covered in with 
 substantial awnings. Rooms on each side 
 had raised platforms at one end, and these 
 were permeated with flues, which, however, 
 were not in use at this season of the year. 
 
 It was soon discovered that there was a 
 sort of canal or creek by which the gunboats 
 could come right up into Peh-tang, and I 
 think that even some of the transports 
 managed to get up. The French also landed, 
 and their guns being heavier than ours, they 
 had exceedingly hard work in dragging 
 them, gun by gun, through the filthy 
 streets. 
 
 To watch our artillery land was really a 
 glorious sight. There was just room on a 
 bit of dry bank to get the horses harnessed 
 to the guns, and as soon as the men had 
 mounted they started off at a gallop, and got 
 to their encampment on the other side of 
 the town in less than five minutes. Surely 
 never were men, horses, guns, and limbers 
 so covered with black mud. 
 
 When the Second Division and all the 
 ammunition and stores had landed, the First 
 
 85 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Division with the cavalry marched through 
 country, which consisted of salt, mud, and 
 graves, for the Taku Forts. We got to the 
 rear of these forts without any opposition, 
 and encamped for the night. The forts were 
 on both sides of the Pei-ho River, and all 
 their guns were directed seawards. We 
 heard afterwards that the Chinese General 
 had reported to the Emperor that the 
 barbarians, being very ignorant of warfare, 
 had been foolish enough to attack from that 
 side. Next day the Second Division had 
 their turn, and were ordered to attack the 
 forts. 
 
 There were, I think, five forts, and during 
 the night the enemy managed to turn some 
 ot their guns in our direction. But our real 
 difficulty did not come from guns, but from 
 mud, for the forts were surrounded by mud 
 of an extraordinary depth. We had, how- 
 ever, some planks and scaling-ladders, and 
 the latter were carried by the Chinese 
 coolies, who, though unarmed, quite en- 
 joyed the fun. Several of them were 
 killed, but this only seemed to increase the 
 delight of those who were not hurt. All 
 the forts were taken by the evening, and we 
 encamped in gardens on the left bank ot the 
 Pei-ho. 
 
 These gardens stretched for three or four 
 .S6 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 miles, and were full of the most delicious 
 peaches. China is, I believe, the home of 
 the peach, and these gardens were the pro- 
 perty of the Emperor, and contained the 
 finest peaches in the whole country. To see, 
 first of all, 8000 men devouring oysters, and 
 then to see them eating peaches, are sights 
 which, to put it mildly, one does not expect 
 during a campaign. 
 
 87 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 On the \va)' to Pekin : The French General in danger : 
 The punishment tliat failed : My firbt experience of 
 looting : Tientsin : Capture of guns : Treating for 
 peace : Treachery : Attacking the enemy : A clump 
 of Tartars : A slap in the face : My report and its fate 
 
 BEFORE Me left Peh-tang we had 
 been formed into two divisions, 
 each of two brigades. We be- 
 came the Second Brigade, First 
 Division, Sir John Michell commanding the 
 division and Colonel Sutton our brigade. I 
 cannot call to mind the arrangements of the 
 artillery, the sappers, and the land trans- 
 sport, though I knew most of the officers 
 very well indeed. 
 
 Our brigade consisted of the 2nd Queen's 
 and the 2nd, 15th, and 60th Sikhs, and here I 
 would like to say that I am writing with- 
 out a single book of reference, and so I 
 beg to be pardoned if my memory fails me 
 as to the sequence of events on the march 
 up to Pekin. 
 
 The first event of any importance was an 
 attack on the line of march by a large force 
 of Tartar cavalry. We deployed as quickly 
 as we could, and when our movement was 
 completed my wing was on the left of the 
 whole line. The French General, Mont- 
 88 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 auban, was nearly cut ofF by this body of 
 cavalry, but fortunately he had behind him 
 an escort of a troop under Lieutenant 
 McGregor, who charged the Tartars at the 
 critical moment, and saved both Montauban 
 and the situation. 
 
 For this assistance the General was very 
 grateful, and most strongly recommended 
 McGregor for a brevet, and he got it. This 
 was extraordinary because he was the only 
 man in the whole force who got anything 
 in the way of honours or rewards; the reason 
 for this abstinence or parsimony, call it 
 what you will, being that the Times corre- 
 spondent (Bowlby) and our Commander-in- 
 Chief quarrelled, and no one was recom- 
 mended during the whole campaign. 
 
 The D.S.O. was then unknown, or, per- 
 haps, some of us might have got that. But 
 when I think of the abundance of honours 
 and brevets that have been given in more 
 recent campaigns, I cannot help feeling that 
 we had rather hard luck. 
 
 One very curious incident on this march 
 is stamped indelibly upon my memory. At 
 a halting place the Provost-Marshal caught 
 one of our 3000 Chinese coolies in the 
 act of looting, a thing which had been 
 strenuously forbidden. The culprit was 
 tried by court-martial, and condemned to 
 
 89 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 be hanged by way of example. The Chinese 
 were drawn up on three sides of a hollow 
 square, the scaffold was erected, and, pre- 
 ceded by his coffin according to the usual 
 formula, the man was duly hanged. 
 
 But the result of this was not at all what 
 we expected, for the whole of the Chinese 
 coolies burst into the most uproarious 
 laughter, and obviously considered that the 
 whole proceeding was delightfully comical. 
 As a spectacle they thought it first-rate, but 
 as a deterrent it was the most dismal of all 
 failures. Needless to say we had no more 
 parades of the sort after this one. 
 
 Some days after we came to a large town, 
 called Hose-woo, and here I received my 
 first lesson in looting, for I found myself in 
 orders to take a hundred rank and file and 
 loot the Government pawnbroking establish- 
 ment, so that we might obtain sufficient 
 warm clothing for the native troops. 
 
 I thought that this would be an easy task, 
 but my surmise was wrong. The building 
 was approached by a long passage, and 
 having walked down this to reconnoitre, I 
 put my head into the yard at the end. Then 
 I returned at once, and with fixed bayonets 
 formed line as best I could, and drove every- 
 one else out of the place at the point of the 
 bayonet. A scene of the wildest disorder 
 90 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 followed. Men of every regiment in the 
 service were looting and fighting. Two 
 Chinese were killed, and many of the 
 Europeans were wounded. A weapon 
 which everyone seemed to be using with 
 great effect was made from strings of copper 
 cash. These weapons flew about in all direc- 
 tions, but were, perhaps, aimed especially at 
 my head. 
 
 Very soon, how^ever, I managed to get 
 this nondescript crowd out of the place, and 
 to post a strong guard at the gate. Then 
 we helped ourselves to warm clothing, most 
 of w^hich consisted of sheepskin jackets. In 
 Hose-woo we burnt some large warehouses 
 full of brick tea, but I do not think that 
 this wanton act was done intentionally. 
 
 About this time the enemy asked for a 
 truce, and we granted their request ; but 
 we told the mandarins who came to treat 
 that we intended to continue our march to 
 Tientsin. When we arrived at this very 
 large town on the Pei-ho we camped on a 
 plain, near the river, and the country people 
 most readily brought in supplies. We could 
 buy a banghy load of fine grapes, certainly 
 weighing two hundred pounds, for an empty 
 bottle, and solid blocks of ice were to be 
 obtained for the same price ! 
 
 The gunboats came up the river as far as 
 
 91 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 this, and we could communicate easily with 
 the fleet, which was anchored off the Taku 
 Forts. My chief remembrance of Tientsin 
 is the extraordinary number of frightful 
 beggars abounding there. The truce, how- 
 ever, did not last very long, and we resumed 
 our march west towards Pekin. 
 
 At some place on the road, called, I think, 
 Chankiawan, where there was a line bridge, 
 we tound the enemy in very strong force. 
 There must have been at least 30,000 men, 
 and we deployed to face them. Here again 
 I found myself on the left of the line, for 
 the General almost invariably split up my 
 regiment into its two wings, so that I was 
 given independent command. 
 
 Inclining my men a little to the left, we 
 were soon completely separated from the 
 rest of the army. Across our front was a 
 very high and long bund, exactly like a large 
 railway embankment, and I expect tliat it 
 had something to do with the floods ot the 
 Hoang Ho river. Through this, about a 
 mile or more ahead, there was a gap, and 
 while making for this, I saw, alongside and 
 under the bund, three guns, each drawn 
 by two horses tandem fashion, with some 
 twenty-fix e foot-men, armed only with swords, 
 to each gun. 
 
 1 was the only mounted man of our force, 
 92 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 so, having given Sothehy an order to bring 
 up a couple of companies as quickly as 
 possible, I galloped off to the gap. The 
 Chinese, however, succeeded in getting the 
 first gun through the gap, but I arrived in 
 time to stop the others, and riding in front of 
 the leading gun with revolver in hand, 
 I kept on shouting " Kowtow," which was 
 the only Chinese word in my vocabulary. 
 I do not suppose that they understood my 
 attempt at their language, but at any rate it 
 had the effect of making them halt. Indeed, 
 had they moved, I intended to shoot the 
 leading pony through the head, but they 
 seemed quite unable to make up their 
 minds what to do, and made no attempt to 
 advance or retire. 
 
 At the end of an awkward quarter of an 
 hour my men began to straggle up at the 
 double, and I told them to disarm all the 
 Chinese. Had I given the order they would 
 have killed the whole lot, but having dis- 
 armed them, I allowed them to go, and then 
 we marched back with the guns. 
 
 One of these guns was a most curious 
 specimen. It consisted of three barrels each 
 six feet long, and carrying a two-ounce ball, 
 but as they could be neither elevated nor 
 depressed the gun did not seem to be of any 
 very great use outside a museum. However, 
 
 93 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 it was, after all, a gun, and at the time I was 
 mightily pleased to have captured it. 
 
 On our march back to gain touch with 
 the rest of the force, we came upon great 
 stores of ammunition. The powder was 
 packed in calfskins, very tightly compressed, 
 and these I destroyed, though I had some 
 difficulty with them on account of their 
 solidity. I collected them into heaps, and 
 I cut into one or two of them with my 
 sword. Then, having spread the powder 
 about, and made long trains of it, we tried to 
 blow them up. Many of these skins were 
 blown right up into the air, and yet came 
 down again unexploded, though full of holes. 
 With perseverance I managed eventually to 
 destroy the lot, but it was such a long and 
 tedious job that we did not get back to the 
 camp until very late. There I reported to 
 the General, and was duly complimented. 
 
 During our march from Tientsin to Pekin, 
 another attempt to make peace was made by 
 the Chinese Government. Early one morn- 
 ing three mandarins came into our camp, 
 and declared that they were empowered 
 to treat with us. At this time I may say 
 that all we subalterns were afraid that we 
 should not be allowed to go to Pekin, and I 
 think that Lord Elgin, our Plenipotentiary, 
 had arranged with the mandarins that only 
 
 94 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 a very small force — merely as a display — 
 should ride through the streets of Pekin. 
 
 This conference with the mandarins lasted 
 for a long time, and while it was going on, 
 Parkes and Loch, who were on Lord Elgin's 
 staff, with a score of men of the K.D.G. 
 and about fifty of our native cavalry, strolled 
 into the Chinese camp. Their idea was 
 that they would be unmolested, but they 
 had scarcely got inside the camp when all 
 of them were taken prisoners ; and at the 
 same time the high mandarins rode away, 
 and any number of concealed guns opened 
 upon us. 
 
 At that moment we were having breakfast 
 in a field of Indian corn, which had just been 
 cut and was in shocks, and as soon as the 
 guns sounded, and a round shot or two had 
 come close to us, I jumped up and shouted, 
 " Hurrah, for Pekin ! " We fell in at once, 
 formed line, and our artillery opened upon 
 them. The results were that we took their 
 guns and drove them off the field. But, 
 by treachery, they had got some seventy 
 prisoners, and these men were all more or 
 less tortured, and most of them died. Their 
 wrists and ankles were tied very tightly 
 together with strips of raw hide, and they 
 were then strung by their ankles and wrists 
 on bamboos, and carried about the country. 
 
 95 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 It was known that they were taken to Yuen 
 Min Yuen, and flung down before the 
 Emperor. 
 
 Parkes and Loch fared better. They were, 
 we heard, imprisoned near the Antin Gate 
 in Pekin ; and Parkes, who knew the lan- 
 guage, met a mandarin whom he had known 
 in Canton, and who stood his friend. 
 
 Continuing our march to Pekin, I again 
 found myself on the advance guard, which 
 consisted of a battery of R. A., a wing of 2nd 
 Queen's, and my wing. We had just arrived 
 at our camping-ground, and the R.A. were 
 busily engaged with a flock of ducks, of 
 which there were some two thousand swim- 
 ming about on a canal close to us. I had 
 also sent our messman to get a few ducks. 
 Suddenly two guns opened fire upon us 
 from the other side of the canal. I at once 
 ran to General Michell, who had come up, 
 to ask him to allow me to take these guns, 
 and I obtained his consent. The next 
 minute I saw Major James, of the 2nd 
 Queen's, coming up, and I felt sure that he 
 was on the same errand. So I begged the 
 General not to allow him to take the com- 
 mand from me, and was told that James 
 should be given orders to follow in reserve. 
 
 Several large boats were on the canal, and 
 by a little management I got two of them 
 96 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 held together by the ends, and these were 
 long enough to enable my four companies 
 to cross. Then I kicked the boats apart, 
 because I was not anxious for the major to 
 be too near me. We formed line on open 
 ground and, advancing immediately, we soon 
 saw some 3000 men lining the wooded bank 
 of a small winding brook, with a considerable 
 village in the centre of the position. The 
 enemy were armed with matchlocks, so 
 I ordered my men not to fire until they 
 were quite close. 
 
 I had seen the Chinese method of loading 
 their matchlocks. After putting in the 
 powder, they jarred the butt on the ground 
 and then dropped the ball in. I never saw 
 any of them use a ramrod, though I believe 
 they had one. Consequently they were 
 bound to fire in the air, or the bullet must 
 have fallen out. 
 
 The result was as I had anticipated. 
 When we were fifty yards away, they fired 
 a volley at us without hitting one of my 
 men, though Major James, who was some 
 distance behind, had three men wounded. 
 Then we charged with the bayonet and 
 accounted for a few, but most of the enemy 
 ran for the village — which we took^ — -and 
 streamed out at the back. In this village 
 Sotheby had a hand-to-hand fight with an 
 
 G 97 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 enormous Tartar, but one of our men came 
 up at an opportune moment and killed the 
 giant. 
 
 While the men were re-forming line on 
 the plain, I saw a group of eight Tartars 
 who obviously meant to show fight. To 
 these I rode, and was at once set upon by 
 the lot. I soon saw that although all of 
 these men were armed with matchlocks, 
 only two of them had loaded weapons. My 
 charger was an extremely handy animal, 
 and by twisting him this way and that way 
 and directing my attention solely to the men 
 with loaded matchlocks, I at length got a 
 fair cut down upon the head of one ot them, 
 and almost in the same second I pulled my 
 left rein and ran the other loaded man 
 through the chest. My syce, who, armed 
 with a very sharp tulwar, came up at this 
 moment, settled another man, and then the 
 rest of them ran away. For days after- 
 wards my horse and I suffered from the 
 bruises which we received from the empty 
 matchlocks. 
 
 Immediately after this I was aware of a 
 troop of cavalry in single rank, and with 
 their commanding officer, in a yellow satin 
 jacket, in the centre. I was, of course, the 
 only mounted man on our side, but I did 
 not see that this was a reason for allowing 
 98 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 these fellows to go off calmly at a walk. So, 
 putting spurs to my horse, I rode for the left 
 side of the yellow satin jacket, and going 
 through the troop at a gallop, I gave the 
 commanding officer a backhander in the face 
 as I passed. At the same time I dropped 
 my reins and pressed my revolver to the 
 back of my left-hand man. One of the 
 bullets, however, had slipped, and the cham- 
 ber would not revolve, so he escaped. 
 
 As soon as I had got through the troop 
 they naturally pursued me, but my horse 
 was faster than any of theirs, and in a few 
 minutes I found myself cantering ahead 
 quite easily. Then swinging around to the 
 left I rejoined my men. 
 
 Marching on, we came across five camps 
 of the enemy, and we took large quantities 
 of ammunition and many standards, but all 
 the guns had been moved off. By this time 
 our General was getting nervous about our 
 long absence from the main body, and orderly 
 after orderly came up ordering me to return. 
 To each of them I pointed out that it was 
 necessary to advance a little farther, so that 
 w^e might take this or that camp. When 
 we had reached the last camp and could find 
 no more opposition, I formed fours and 
 marched back by the way we had come. 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief sent for me 
 
 99 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 when I had returned, and I reported to him 
 what we had done. In reply he said, " I 
 think it will be better for you to make a 
 report of the whole thing." Of course I 
 consented, for I thought it a great honour, 
 but it would have been very much better for 
 me if he had made the report. As it was, I 
 never appeared in despatches, and as for my 
 report— who cares for a lieutenant's report .? 
 Without doubt it was promptly burked. 
 
 lOO 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Peace and prisoners : The shops of Pekin : A French 
 officer and his loot . A wonderful watch : Bargaining 
 with the Frenchman : Pearls of small and great price 
 
 WE had no more fighting, but as 
 we approached Pekin, on some 
 grass downs to the north of it, 
 I was able to secure a flock of 
 1 200 sheep. Keeping a few for our own 
 use, I handed over the rest to the commis- 
 sariat, and was again complimented by the 
 General. 
 
 The walls of Pekin were very high and 
 massive ; so broad, indeed, at the top that 
 three carriages might be driven abreast upon 
 them. The gates were strongly defended, 
 and there were very large towers on the 
 walls. We encamped at quite a short dis- 
 tance to the north of the Antin Gate, for 
 the Chinese did not seem to have any guns 
 mounted upon the walls. The day after 
 our arrival we had two or three batteries 
 in position only 200 yards from the walls. 
 And the question was whether these field- 
 guns could make a breach in such a solid 
 mass. 
 
 The Chinese, however, were again begging 
 for a truce, and by this time they were 
 honestly anxious to make peace. The first 
 
 lOI 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 thing demanded by us was that all the 
 prisoners should be given up. This they 
 conceded as far as they could ; but a great 
 many of our men were dead, and those who 
 were brought in were terribly maimed and 
 altogether in a most shameful state, their 
 wrists and ankles being full of maggots. 
 
 We had reason to feel indignant, and it 
 was proposed to demand compensation from 
 the Chinese Government. I do not precisely 
 know the amount of this, but I remember 
 to have heard that ^Ti 0,000 was to be de- 
 manded for every native, and ^100,000 for 
 every European. Of this, I think, Lord 
 Elgin did not see the justice, and he was 
 reported to have said that if these terms 
 were insisted upon the burden would fall 
 upon the people alone, whereas these 
 prisoners had been flung before the Em- 
 peror himself, who ought also to be made 
 to suffer. Accordingly some moderate com- 
 pensation was demanded, and Lord Elgin 
 determined to burn the Emperor's summer 
 palace of Yuen Min Yuen to the ground. 
 In the meantime, officers were allowed to 
 go into Pekin in pairs, never singly, and in 
 uniform and fully armed. 
 
 Pekin was an especially dirty place, with 
 broad streets, but covered with black filth. 
 It appeared to be the custom of the Chinese 
 102 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 to throw anything they did not want into 
 the streets, and there were no sanitary 
 arrangements of any kind. 
 
 There were two cities, the Chinese city 
 and the Tartar city, and in the southern one 
 we found some capital shops. The butchers' 
 shops contained rats and dogs hanging by 
 their tails, beautifully clean to look at, and 
 skewered just as our butchers hang up their 
 mutton. I do not think that any of us were 
 bold enough to test these dainties, and in 
 fact my lunch was always made off sweet- 
 meats, which were truly excellent. In Pekin 
 I saw for the first time walnuts preserved in 
 white sugar, and all sorts of preserved fruits 
 were extremely common and good. 
 
 The people seemed to be quite friendly, 
 and never interfered with us. I inspected 
 various temples, notably the Temple of 
 Heaven. In the northern city was the 
 great palace of the Emperor, called " The 
 Forbidden City," but we were not allowed 
 to visit that. 
 
 Sotheby, young Elton, and I, however, 
 made several expeditions to temples and 
 palaces in the neighbourhood ; and on one 
 of these expeditions we discovered the great 
 bell of Pekin in the courtyard of a monas- 
 tery, about three miles to the north of the 
 city. It has been said to be the largest bell 
 
 103 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 in the world. There was no clapper, and it 
 was struck on the edge by a solid log of 
 hard wood, and the sound produced was 
 most beautifully mellow and harmonious. 
 
 About this time I found myself in request 
 as a valuer of various precious stones, &c. 
 Several of our fellows had made purchases, 
 principally of gold and pearls, trom the 
 French, and most of these were brought to 
 me for my opinion of their worth. Our 
 General, too, constantly asked me to break- 
 fast, and afterwards to go to the French 
 c.imp with him to see what we could buy. 
 We were most successful, especially in the 
 matter of pearls, which seemed to be re- 
 garded by the French as of no value. Except 
 in watches, there seemed to be no diamonds. 
 
 The French had now withdrawn from 
 the Summer Palace, and were encamped 
 close to us. So one afternoon Sotheby, 
 Elton, and I went for a walk through their 
 camp, and saw an officer with a box before 
 him in front of his tent, and showing what 
 was evidently his loot to an admiring circle 
 of friends. We were looking on at a re- 
 spectful distance, when he came forward and 
 asked us if we would like to see his " little 
 collection of curiosities." 
 
 Of course we were delighted to do so. 
 There were ten of us altogether, counting 
 104 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 French and English, and they found us 
 empty vermuth boxes to sit upon. The 
 fortunate owner of the box (which was 
 really an old tea-chest such as hold loo lb. 
 of tea) was a Captain of Infantry in the 
 Marines, and he was also the happy pos- 
 sessor of a remarkable watch, which I will 
 describe. 
 
 It was round in shape, about the size of a 
 tennis-ball. The case was literally a hollow 
 sphere of the finest rose diamonds set in 
 open gold, seventy-six of them altogether, 
 the largest one being nearly three-quarters 
 of an inch in diameter. One side of this 
 sphere was open sufficiently to disclose the 
 face of the watch, and the case was arranged 
 to open so as to permit of the removal of 
 the watch by means of a small key or handle 
 about half an inch long on one side. 
 
 The makers' name was Clarke and 
 Dunster, and it had Charles I.'s cipher 
 on the key. 
 
 Such a watch was, I take it, absolutely 
 unique. 
 
 The treasures enclosed in the box were 
 marvellous, and must, I should think, have 
 been worth quite _^ 100,000. Two neck- 
 laces, exactly alike, of very large pearls 
 especially attracted my fancy. Eighteen 
 pearls went round the neck, and there were 
 
 105 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 twenty-three in all, the remaining five in 
 each case being in pendants in front. 
 
 With the box in our midst we all sat 
 round, and everything was handed about for 
 our inspection. This lasted for an hour, 
 and then the jewels were returned, and one 
 of the little group, a senior French officer, 
 on getting up to go, remarked, " I con- 
 gratulate you. Captain ; it is a very nice box, 
 and must be worth, I should think, quite 
 30,000 francs." 
 
 This gave me an idea, and as I shook hands 
 with the Captain and thanked him for his 
 kindness, I added, " Your friend thinks 
 your box is worth 30,000 francs. I shall 
 be happy to give you that amount for it." 
 
 He, however, assured me that a French 
 officer merely collected these things " pour 
 I'honneur et pour la gloire," and would 
 never dream of selling them. " Yes, yes, 
 quite so," I replied somewhat impatiently, 
 " but all the same, should you happen to 
 change your mind you will let me know ? " 
 and so I wished him good-bye. 
 
 I could not help thinking about that box, 
 and the tip that had been given me as to 
 its estimated worth. So I reconnoitred the 
 French camp the next day without seeing 
 anything of my Captain of Marines, but 
 on the following day I was there again, and 
 106 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 he, spying me out when I was quite a long 
 way off, came up and asked me to come and 
 have a liqueur. Then he took me to his tent, 
 and, having given me a glass of vermuth, 
 said, " Monsieur, I will take your offer." 
 "What," I said, " the 30,000 francs for the 
 box ? Let me have a look at it," and he ordered 
 his servant to bring it in. I at once said that 
 more than half the things were gone, and I 
 told him so. Whereupon he asked me if 
 I doubted his honour, and I answered that I 
 knew nothing about his honour, but that 
 he must remember two necklaces of pearls, 
 with twenty-three pearls in each necklace, 
 and that they had gone. This he could not 
 contradict, so I went on to tell him that I 
 had set great store by those pearls, because 
 I had wanted to give them to the lady to 
 whom I was engaged to be married. He 
 then began rather to sneer at my professed 
 knowledge of pearls, and as things were 
 getting unpleasantly warm I changed my 
 tactics and said, " I will tell you what 
 I will do. I will choose the pearls I want 
 from your box, and then you shall fix the 
 price. Will that suit you ? " 
 
 To this, although he was rather angry, 
 he consented, for I am sure that he con- 
 sidered me a complete duffer. 
 
 I chose seventy-eight pearls of all sizes 
 
 107 
 
'REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 from tlie box, none of which, I should say, 
 were worth less than ten pounds apiece, and 
 a great many of them must have been worth 
 froni/^ioo to ,^250 each. " How much for 
 the lot ? " I asked, and was told that he must 
 have £^0 English money for them. " It is 
 a great sum," I said, but after some little 
 hesitation I agreed to give it to him. 
 
 7\t this moment out of a bit of old rag 
 there dropped the finest pearl of all ; it was 
 the size and shape of a pigeon's egg, and of 
 a most perfect lustre. " You will give me 
 tliat in," I said to him. But he replied that 
 he expected five English pounds for it, and 
 eventually I gave him £^^ tor the lot. I 
 may say now that when I returned to India 
 I was offered 6000 rupees for this splendid 
 pearl, but at the time I bought it there is no 
 doubt that this Captain imagined that I was 
 buying something of no value whatever. 
 
 As soon as the transaction was complete, 
 the Captain left me in the tent with his 
 soldier servant, and I could hear him laugh- 
 ing in the next tent with his brother officers 
 and chuckling over the way in which he had 
 " stuck " the Britisher. 
 
 The servant, who spoke broken English, 
 immediately assured me that I had been 
 nicely taken in. And when I asked him 
 what he meant, he answered, " There is not 
 108 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 one of those pearls that you have bought that 
 is worth a franc. All my life I have been 
 working in pearls. I come from a place on 
 the Seine, below Paris, where we made them 
 in thousands." (I recognised the name at 
 the time as being famous for the manufacture 
 of false pearls, but I have since forgotten it.) 
 " In your regiment, then, I daresay you have 
 many more ? " I queried. " Oh, yes, they 
 are in huge numbers. I will show you." 
 And I agreed that he should take me to see 
 them as soon as I had settled with his master. 
 
 Soon afterwards the Captain returned in 
 the most cheerful spirits, and I offered him 
 j/^200 for his watch, but he asked X^^So for 
 it. " No," I told him, " I am a man of my 
 word. I will give you _^2oo." Then I 
 asked him if I might take it away with me, 
 and remove the centre diamond and weigh 
 it. And to this request he replied, " By all 
 means, if you will replace it." 
 
 I had that watch in my possession for 
 some weeks, and took out the diamond, 
 weighed it, and put it back again. I always 
 intended to have the watch, but one day, as 
 ill-luck would have it, I met the soldier 
 servant close to my own tent, and giving 
 him the watch I said, "Tell your Captain I 
 still stick to my offer of ^200." The next 
 day the French marched away, and I have 
 
 109 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 never seen either the Captain or his watch 
 since. 
 
 Now to return to the subject of pearls. 
 One day the soldier took me to his lines and 
 sent for the men who had pearls. These 
 fellows brought me any number of false 
 ones, which I said were magnificent, but 
 not at all what I wanted. At length two 
 old soldiers came along and sat down on the 
 ground by me. Then out of some rag they 
 pulled four first-rate pearls, the size of large 
 marrowfat peas and perfect in every way. 
 For these they asked four piastres (dollars). 
 Just as I was concluding this bargain a fifth 
 pearl popped out from a fragment of rag. I 
 said, " I will take that one also," and was told 
 that I could have it in with the rest. So I 
 got five pearls for four dollars. They were 
 worth 250 guineas apiece ! 
 
 1 10 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 On a looting expedition : Another watch : Baskets of 
 loot : The prize fund : Burning the palace : Gold, and 
 my way of securing it 
 
 IN the evening after our arrival at 
 Pekin we heard that our cavalry had 
 reached the palace of Yuen Min Yuen, 
 but as it was a walled place they 
 were not allowed to enter it. The French 
 infantry, who were with our cavalry and 
 had no such restrictions imposed upon them, 
 were having the time of their lives. 
 
 The loot was immense, for nothing had 
 been moved. The place had been left in 
 charge of eunuchs only, who had shouted, 
 " Don't commit sacrilege," and then run 
 away. During that afternoon I was walk- 
 ing on the downs to the north of our 
 camp and met Dick Harrison, who had been 
 at Chilari Ghat with me. He had just 
 returned from the French camp, and he 
 told me of the loot, and, pointing out a 
 pagoda some seven miles away, said, " If 
 you ride for that pagoda you will find the 
 French camp within a hundred yards of it. 
 The whole camp is full of clocks, dozens 
 and dozens of them ; watches, silks, satins, 
 and everything you can imagine. I have 
 never seen such a show." 
 
 1 1 1 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 News of all this came to Sir Hope Grant's 
 ears, and during that night he very kindly 
 issued a general order that half the officers 
 of every regiment might go and loot. They 
 had to return at noon, so that the other half 
 might go. This suited me admirably as I 
 was second in command, and I think that 
 I may take some credit to myself for being 
 only twenty minutes late in returning. 
 
 Of course, on the following morning I was 
 up early, but the camp was up earlier still ; 
 and, as I was mounting my horse at the door 
 of my tent, a procession of officers of all 
 ranks, headed by the chaplain, passed me, 
 bound for Yuen Min Yuen. 
 
 Galloping across country, I got to the 
 pagoda a good hour before the procession 
 arrived, and at once found the French camp, 
 which was quite close to the south gate of 
 the palace. The first thing I met was a 
 country cart coming out of the gate, and 
 escorted by French soldiers with fixed 
 bayonets. It was full of gold in lumps 
 which we called shoes, because they were 
 cast somewhat in the shape of a shoe 
 
 There \\as a French guard at the gate, 
 who saluted me. Across the courtyard was 
 the great Hall of Audience, but everything, 
 except some very large cloisonne vases, had 
 been looted. I turned to the right into 
 
 I 12 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 a small room, which was full of yellow 
 pamphlets. These were, I feel sure, cata- 
 logues of the contents of the palace. 
 
 While I was standing in this room, two 
 French soldiers came in, and one of them 
 was swinging something glittering in his 
 hand. Then I asked him if he had " any- 
 thing of curiosity " to show, and he replied, 
 " I have nothing but a watch." In answer 
 to my request to see it, he put into my hand 
 a magnificent watch of blue enamel, with a 
 sun of diamonds on the back, the centre 
 stone of which was more than half an inch 
 in diameter. Pearls, wonderfully matched, 
 made a border, back and front. The makers' 
 name was Barraud and Lund. 
 
 " I wish to buy," I told the soldier, and 
 he asked me to fix a price. This, however, 
 I declined to do, for I knew that I should 
 spoil the bargain. But as he absolutely 
 refused to name any sum, I at last suggested 
 that his friend should fix the price. The 
 friend immediately said, " Fifteen piastres," 
 which meant fifteen dollars. But the owner 
 of the watch was disappointed at this, and 
 complained that some other man had got 
 twenty-five piastres for his watch. " I'll 
 give you twenty piastres," I said, and with 
 this offer he was quite pleased. 
 
 Then I tore a blank sheet out of one of 
 H 113 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 the yellow catalogues, and wrote my name, 
 rank, regiment, and lOU for twenty dollars, 
 and he did not take the trouble to come for 
 his money until more than a month had 
 passed by. The watch, like everything else 
 in the palace, had two small Chinese labels 
 upon it, and some time after I showed them 
 to Wade, our interpreter, and he read them 
 for me. In this way I discovered that I 
 owned the watch which had been presented 
 by Lord McCartney to the Emperor in 1792. 
 When I got back to England again I took 
 this watch, with the chatelaine attached, to 
 Barraud and Co., Cornhill, who told me that 
 it ]]ad cost five hundred guineas. 
 
 Although at the time I did not know the 
 actual value of my purchase, I was not 
 inclined to think that I had made a bad 
 start, and I wandered on through suites of 
 rooms, most of which had been thoroughly 
 looted. Nevertheless, I was able to pick up 
 a few trifles. I got a square jade seal of the 
 Emperor's, with the vermilion still in the 
 stamp, which had been used for appointing 
 governors and high mandarins to their 
 posts ; this seal had a carved handle, repre- 
 senting a sort of lion. 
 
 I also got a curiously shaped flower-pot 
 made of gold wire, with letters of white 
 coral worked in the wires. It had earth in 
 
 114 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 it, from the centre of which there came a 
 gold tree about a foot high, with turquoise 
 fruit on it, and each fruit had a ruby centre. 
 In addition, I obtained a great many rolls 
 of silks and satins of the very best quality, 
 and altogether I filled seven large baskets 
 with loot of various kinds. Plenty of baskets 
 were to be got from the guard at the gate, 
 and the officer in charge offered me as many 
 Tartar coolies (prisoners) as I required. 
 I had tied my charger to an iron post at 
 the gateway, and, having mounted him, 
 I kept my seven Tartars, with their loads, 
 in front of me, and rode back, revolver in 
 hand, to camp at Pekin. 
 
 As I have already said, I was only twenty 
 minutes late in returning. But when I found 
 that my friend Keppel, who was to take my 
 place, would not take the trouble to go, I 
 wished that I had stayed longer, for I thought 
 that the extra time could have been most 
 profitably employed. 
 
 In the evening, when the order-book 
 came round, we received a blow. Sir Hope 
 Grant stated that, as the men could not be 
 allowed to go to the palace and as the 
 officers had already got such an astounding 
 amount of loot, he intended to make a prize 
 fund. For this purpose he had been able to 
 obtain the sum of _^2o,ooo from Montauban, 
 
 115 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 the French General, and he went on to say 
 that all the loot was to be sold by auction, 
 and the proceeds were to be put into this fund. 
 What, however, we had bought from the 
 French we were to be allowed to keep. 
 
 When, some days afterwards, it had been 
 decided that the palace should be destroyed, 
 the First Division was ordered to march to 
 Yuen Min Yuen. Accordingly we arrived 
 there late one afternoon, and our orders were 
 to enter the big gates at daylight the next 
 morning, in detached companies, each com- 
 pany with an officer. Then we were to 
 march as far as every company could in 
 every direction, and having got as far as 
 possible, we were to turn back to the 
 gateway. 
 
 We had been recommended in general 
 orders to loot all we could, and to take carts 
 and bring back whatever we liked. Not 
 being attached to any company, I was quite 
 independent, and having a fair knowledge of 
 topography, I started from the great southern 
 gate with the fixed intention of going to the 
 north. However, I could never get very far 
 away, for I was always brought to a standstill 
 either by a deep canal of clear water or by 
 enormous walls of artificial rockwork. 
 
 It turned out that the palace covered 
 eleven square miles, and really it gives a 
 ii6 
 
THE INDIAN MiUTINY 
 
 wrong impression to call it a palace. It was 
 a series of palaces, many of them connected 
 together by corridors or passages, or with 
 steps here and there, and with bridges over 
 all sorts of places. 
 
 At last I got through into what seemed 
 to be the private sitting-room of the Em- 
 peror. On the tables were various wonder- 
 fully carved lacquer boxes and cases of all 
 descriptions. There were also some splendid 
 carvings of scenery, and of these I helped 
 myself to two and took them back to the 
 gate. Then I again started to go north, 
 and once more was brought up suddenly by 
 a long, high blank wall. Leaning against 
 this was a single plank, and being pretty 
 active, I managed by crouching and getting 
 my fingers under the sides of the plank to 
 reach the top of the wall, and found myself 
 looking down into a cul-de-sac, with a long, 
 narrow passage. 
 
 The right side consisted solely of wall, 
 but the left side had three doors in it, and I 
 had come in at the blind end. My next 
 adventure was to drop down and enter the 
 first door, which opened into a courtyard, 
 some 35 feet by 25. In the middle of the 
 left side of the yard was a door, and on 
 passing through it I found a large go-down, 
 or chamber, with three six-feet deep shelves 
 
 117 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 round the three sides of it. These had held 
 articles of jade, and evidently this chamber 
 had been a magazine of jade, but nothing 
 had been left excepting some very large 
 vessels and carvings v^^hich were almost too 
 big to carry. However, I took one thing 
 rather like a carved paving-stone. 
 
 Then I went out into the passage again, 
 and, entering the second door, I found the 
 same kind of courtyard, a similar go-down 
 with the door in a similar place, three shelves 
 round the sides and the two ends, precisely 
 identical. This had evidently been a maga- 
 zine of enamels, but only things so big that 
 it was almost impossible to carry them re- 
 mained. Here I took a big grotesque sort 
 of demon with an open mouth, and going 
 out into the passage again with my demon 
 in one hand, I took up my paving-stone and 
 came to the third door. Once more I found 
 a precisely similar courtyard, but in this spot 
 four or five Sikhs were engaged in chiselling 
 off small pieces of what appeared to be two 
 large broken pagodas. I lifted up the bell 
 part of the largest pagoda, and having raised 
 it about an inch off the ground, I knew im- 
 mediately from the weight that it was gold. 
 This pagoda had evidently been seven feet 
 high, and the other about six inches less. 
 They were in shape like the ordinary Bur- 
 ii8' 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 mese pagoda, the lower third consisting of 
 steps, then the large bell, and the spire rising 
 from that. The spire was nearly solid, with 
 Tibetan letters all around it in rings, and was 
 very heavy. The steps also were very solid, 
 and the bell part was about the thickness of 
 a rupee. 
 
 I asked the Sikhs what they were doing, 
 and one of them answered, " Breaking off 
 bits to sell to the Europeans for gold." Then 
 I went down into the go-down on the left, 
 and found it of the usual size, with three 
 shelves, from which everything had been 
 taken. Fighting had taken place there, for 
 bits of men's skulls were lying about, but 
 their bodies had been removed. This had 
 obviously been a magazine of gold ornaments 
 of all sorts. 
 
 After inspecting the place I returned to 
 the courtyard, and said to myself, " Here is 
 a fortune on this bit of ground. How shall 
 I manage to get it away ? " My best plan, I 
 thought, was to begin by assuming the airs 
 of a languid swell, so I lounged against the 
 outer entrance door, and seeing a man of the 
 6oth Rifles at a little distance, I beckoned to 
 him. 
 
 When he had come up I asked him his 
 name, and whether he had been in luck. 
 In reply he told me that he had not got 
 
 119 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 anything, because he did not know what to 
 take. 
 
 " Much my case," I said, " but I think of 
 taking all this stuff, if there is anything in 
 it. Will you help to carry it to the gate .? " 
 
 " Certainly, sir," he answered, and was 
 quite willing to have me decide upon a fair 
 payment for his services. 
 
 As I was beginning to load bim up with 
 a portion of the pagoda I saw another man 
 of his regiment, and soon arranged with him 
 also to carry a load. Then I said to the Sikhs, 
 " Come along, you fellows, take all this up. 
 I am going to take it to the gateway." 
 
 I had now seven men well loaded, and had 
 to pass through two large courtyards, where 
 a hundred or more soldiers, R.A.'s and others, 
 were kicking about the Imperial footstools 
 of yellow embroidered satin, and playing a 
 kind of rough football with them. I took 
 care not to touch a bit of this gold myself, 
 for I had the reputation in the camp of 
 knowing the value of things, and I thought 
 that if I was seen with any of my latest loot 
 there would be a scrimmage, and that I 
 should only get as much as I could carry 
 myself. 
 
 Among the men whom I met was Lane 
 Crawford's agent, who had accompanied the 
 forces with all sorts of provisions and wines, 
 1 20 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 which he sold to the various messes, and 
 bought any loot he could get in exchange. 
 
 " Are you taking all that rubbish ? Why, 
 it is only brass ; I saw it this morning," he 
 said. 
 
 " Oh, well," I answered, " perhaps I have 
 not enough brass in my composition. Any- 
 how, I feel as if I want this." 
 
 We managed to get the gold eventually to 
 my tent, where I wrapped it up in my 
 blankets. The steps, however, of one pagoda 
 were missing, and I saw them the next 
 morning behind the cart of our Adjutant. 
 So one of the Sikhs must have bolted and 
 made his own bargain. 
 
 121 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 I return to the palace and get more loot . Edmund 
 Ward's story • A piece of bad luck 
 
 THIS gold was all of a very hard 
 and very pale metal, and un- 
 doubtedly looked like brass. 
 Almost everyone had seen it 
 before I did, and had passed it by as 
 worthless. Afterwards it turned out to be 
 alloyed with eight per cent, of silver, but no 
 copper, and it was worth about _£22,ooo. 
 
 Having settled with my carriers to their 
 satisfaction, I went to have a talk with 
 "Jack" Randal, my CO. It was now 
 2.30 P.M. and the force was waiting with 
 piled arms for three companies of our 
 regiment, under Edmund Ward, which 
 were missing. At last I got tired of doing 
 nothing and said to Randal, " If you don't 
 mind I should like to have another look at 
 that go-down from which I got the gold. 
 It is only about 250 yards from here." 
 "All right," he replied, "you will hear the 
 bugles." 
 
 Thereupon I took my orderly, Goorditt 
 Sing, with me, and found that the roof of 
 the go-down was alight, as indeed were all 
 the surrounding buildings. I could not, 
 however, help thinking that, in a place 
 I 22 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 where such a lot of wealth had been, and in 
 which there had quite evidently been a free 
 fight, there must be something still left. 
 The floor, I noticed, was paved with square 
 tiles, and having taken a large nail from the 
 wall and run it between the tiles, small 
 broken pieces of gold and pearls at once 
 began to spurt out. Goorditt Sing soon 
 found another nail and also set to work. 
 Before the roof began to fall in and we 
 thought it was time to go, I had got two 
 double handfuls of these fragments, and he 
 nearly as much. 
 
 When we had returned there were still 
 no signs of the missing companies, and 
 everyone was becoming impatient. Then, 
 about 4.30 P.M., when I was close to the 
 gateway, I heard a voice saying, " Where's 
 Harris ? " and I saw Edmund Ward holding 
 in his arms a large image of Buddha — the 
 usual cross-legged image in the attitude of 
 contemplation. 
 
 Directly I felt the weight of the image, I 
 knew that it was gold and told him so. But 
 he was not to be easily convinced ; in fact, 
 he was determined not to be. 
 
 " It is not gold, it can't be gold," he said, 
 and then, by way of a change, he called 
 himself " a d d fool." 
 
 " My dear fellow, it is gold," I assured 
 
 123 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 him, but this only made him rave more than 
 ever. 
 
 " If you don't believe it," I continued, 
 " I'll give you /^5oo for it now. But I 
 don't want you to take it, for you are a pal 
 of mine, and your image is worth a lot 
 more than that." 
 
 This, however, seemed to increase his fury 
 so much that I asked what on earth was the 
 matter with him. 
 
 " The matter ! " he cried. " Why, I only 
 brought one away, and I left 499 of them 
 behind ! " 
 
 Then he told me his story in the following 
 words : 
 
 "Just after you left me at one o'clock I 
 found a small door leading out of the 
 Emperor's quarters, through which I got 
 away nortli. All the grounds and build- 
 ings were ab^dutcly untouched; neither the 
 French, nor the Chinese coolies, had looted 
 them at all. The scenery was very varied, 
 and full of artificial effects. As you know, 
 our orders were to go as far as we could, and 
 then turn back to the gate. When I had 
 gone about two miles, I thought that I had 
 gone as far as it was prudent to go, and 
 seeing a very large and fine temple on a 
 hill, with a lake below and a lot of marble 
 staircases and a bridge, I considered that 
 124 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 this would be a good place to begin upon. 
 On entering the temple I saw a colossal 
 statue of Buddha at the farther end, and all 
 round the hall on tiers, like plants in a hot- 
 house, were five hundred of these gods." 
 
 Here I may say that I knew he was right 
 about the number and was not exaggerating, 
 for it was quite usual in Buddhist temples 
 to have an image for each one of the five 
 hundred attributes of Buddha. 
 
 " While the men were lighting up," Ward 
 continued, " I amused myself by cutting and 
 slashing these images. Having broken my 
 sword, as you remember, in one of the earlier 
 actions, I was armed with a native tulwar. 
 I cut off the ear of one image, and taking it 
 up I thought it was very heavy and must be 
 gold. Then I handed it to Subahdar Nutha 
 Sing, who immediately said, 'Sahib, yih 
 sonar hai ' (' This is gold '). I cut another 
 image in the same way, and it was evident 
 they were all alike. This made Nutha Sing 
 think, and presently he said, ' In what 
 book was it ever written that there were 
 five hundred gold gods of this size ? It 
 is impossible, but all the same give it to 
 your orderly to carry.' And here it is." 
 
 So ended Ward's story, and while the 
 bugles were sounding the " fall-in," I asked 
 him how far away this temple was, and 
 
 125 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 he answered, "About two miles." There- 
 upon I rushed off to interview the General, 
 Sir John Michell, who had just mounted 
 his horse, and with his staff around him was 
 waiting for the troops to fall in. 
 
 " General, can I speak to you privately ? " 
 I asked, and as he at once drew away from 
 the rest of his staff I continued : " I have 
 come on a big thing. If you will leave me 
 here with my wing I can be back at the 
 Pekin camp by 1 1 o'clock or so." " What 
 is it .? " he asked, and when I had told him 
 that it was gold in great quantities, he 
 shook his head and replied that he could 
 not give me leave. 
 
 " But, General," I ventured to expostulate, 
 "• such a chance as this will never come again ; 
 it is the chance of a lifetime ! " 
 
 " I should have been delighted to help 
 you," he returned, " but it is already 
 5 o'clock and getting dark, and we have 
 got seven miles to march back to Pekin. 
 I can't do it now, but I will tell you what I 
 will do. At daybreak to-morrow morning 
 I will send you out with your wing as a 
 foraging party." 
 
 " That will be splendid," I said, " with all 
 the day before me, we shall be back in time 
 for dinner." 
 
 We got back to the camp at Pekin in 
 126 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 time for 8.30 mess, and, alas, during dinner, 
 the order-book came round with orders to 
 march down country at daylight. 
 
 Some days later Ward sold his image to 
 a Jew sutler for ^(ij(>, for he was always 
 most comically afraid that it would turn 
 into brass. Each one of these gods was really 
 worth from _^iooo to _;,^I200. 
 
 I was very uneasy in my mind at having 
 got so much gold, and I took the first 
 opportunity on the line of march to ask for 
 an interview with the Commander-in-Chief. 
 It was immediately granted, and then I 
 admitted that I had between ^T 10,000 and 
 >(^2o,ooo worth of gold, and asked if I 
 might keep it. " Why, yes, you saw the 
 orders .? " was the answer. " Yes, sir," I said, 
 " I saw the orders, but you may remember 
 that I got a large amount of gold and 
 valuables before, and had to give them 
 up." " Oh, yes," the Commander-in-Chief 
 replied, " I had to make a prize fund then. 
 I will never make another as long as I live." 
 
 Then I saluted, and left him with my 
 feelings considerably relieved. 
 
 127 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Our march back to Tientsin : Gunboats and language : 
 A terrific gale : An unsuccessful attempt to attract 
 pirates : Turtle-fishing 
 
 THE date of my interview with the 
 Commander-in-Chief was Octo- 
 ber 19, and the thermometer fell 
 to four degrees below zero. We 
 were all clad in beautiful furs and other 
 warm clothing, but a bell-tent, even with 
 three in it, is not at all suited to very low 
 temperatures. We soon gave up marching 
 in the early hours, and generally started 
 about eleven o'clock and reached our camp- 
 ing ground between 2 and 3 p.m. 
 
 It was too cold to stand about, and as 
 soon as the tents were pitched we all went 
 to bed. By four o'clock our one hot meal 
 was ready, and we ate it lying on the ground 
 in 01 r rugs. All our other meals were cold, 
 and consisted of 2;ame of all sorts — Pallas' 
 sand-grouse, which were very good indeed, 
 geese and ducks. These with a sackful of 
 boiled hams and chupatties formed our meals. 
 The sacks, one of hams and one of birds, 
 were always on the mess-cart, and on the 
 line of march were usually close behind the 
 column. Whenever there was a halt, the 
 mere sight of these carts made us hungry. 
 128 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 There was a great deal of dust owing to 
 the high winds, and the sacks were as black 
 as coal, as indeed was the outside of all our 
 provisions. That, however, was of little 
 consequence, and, with a bit of newspaper 
 for a plate and a pocket-knife, we managed 
 to do very well. We got down to Tientsin 
 without any particular mishaps, and then 
 were ordered to go on board the gunboats. 
 
 I had at this time fifteen transport animals 
 and three carts, and what to do with these 
 was a puzzle. However, as I owed Lane 
 Crawford and Co. a bill of ninety-five dollars, 
 I let them have the whole lot for the amount 
 of the bill, and I think that they made a 
 jolly good bargain. 
 
 We only stayed two hours or so in Tientsin, 
 and away we went in a gunboat down the 
 Pei-ho, which was a narrow river with a 
 very strong tide. Each of these gunboats, 
 of which there were many, was commanded 
 by a lieutenant, with a boatswain for his next 
 officer. 
 
 I have already mentioned that the tone of 
 the Navy in those days was different from 
 that prevailing in the Army, and if I had not 
 known this before, my journey down the Pei- 
 ho would have convinced me of it. Steam- 
 ing down the river at a good rate, we soon 
 became aware that another gunboat was 
 
 I 129 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 approaching, and I saw that our lieutenant 
 was in a great state of mind. We pulled in 
 as close to the bank as we could, so that 
 the other gunboat might have room to 
 pass, but nothing appeared to please the 
 officer in command of the approaching boat, 
 and he used the most foul, forcible, and 
 scurrilous language. 
 
 They got by at length, and we pulled out 
 trom the bank to resume our journey. But 
 presently we saw another boat, and the same 
 thing occurred, only the officer in command 
 of this boat was more of an artist in the way 
 of abusive language. 
 
 Again we started, and again another gun- 
 boat hove in sight, but on this occasion I 
 saw that things were different. Our lieu- 
 tenant was now quite cheerful and used all 
 the language himself, for the third boat was 
 commanded by an officer junior to our man. 
 We did not get down to the anchorage at 
 Taku until 9 or lo p.m. on a very dark night. 
 We let go the anchor near one of Her 
 Majesty's ships, and the noise of the chain 
 through the hawse-hole produced the hail, 
 " What ship is that .?" from the look-out man. 
 
 Our man replied, and presently a voice 
 said, " If you don't get your anchor up at 
 once, and take your troops to the Fore- 
 i'uii)iei\ I'll put you under arrest." 
 I ^o 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 To this our lieutenant replied, " Sir, I 
 have not half an hour's coal on board," and 
 then we heard the voice out of the dark 
 
 saying, " I don't care a d n. Up with 
 
 your anchor, and get your troops on board 
 their ship at once." 
 
 It was no easy job to find the Forerunner 
 among a fleet of more than two hundred 
 vessels, but our lieutenant succeeded in doing 
 it. And we saw no more of our gunboat 
 friends. 
 
 I think that it was on the next day that 
 the P. & O. steamer Bentinck, with the 
 rest of our regiment on board, took us in 
 tow, and we steamed east for the mouth of 
 the Gulf of Pe-chi-li. The cold was more 
 intense than any I had known, and a strong 
 north wind was blowing, which soon de- 
 veloped into a tremendous gale. Both 
 hawsers were broken, and the Bentinck was 
 swept from end to end, and all the horses 
 and deck furniture were swept overboard. 
 Without any delay we had to set what sail 
 we could. The Forerunner was rather short- 
 handed, so I allowed the captain to have a 
 hundred Sikhs " to pull his strings," as I 
 called it. This was by no means pleasant 
 work, for every rope was as hard as wire. 
 
 The southern half of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li 
 is practically a bight of shallow water, which 
 
 131 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 becomes more and more shallow the farther 
 you drive south. The waves were enormous, 
 and our great fear was that we should get 
 into such shallow water that we should 
 bump the bottom out of the ship on the 
 mud. We tacked east and we tacked west, 
 and at last we got a small slant of wind on 
 our boat, and were able to scrape through 
 the entrance. We passed through some 
 islands without any knowledge of the depth 
 of the channel, but we chanced it and 
 managed to get through along the coast of 
 Shantung. The conditions then began to 
 improve, and we were able to make a little 
 southing. We sailed close past the Island of 
 Quelpart, which looked rather like the south 
 coast of Ireland, and were soon able to make 
 a true course for Hong Kong. Within 
 twenty-four hours or less we had reached a 
 beautifully mild climate. 
 
 In due course we reached Hong Kong, 
 and there I sold my gold to a Chinaman. I 
 also sent home by the P. & O. quite a fine 
 selection of silks and satins to my fiancee. 
 
 From Hong Kong we set sail for Singa- 
 pore, and as I had heard a report that Chinese 
 pirates abounded along the coast of Tonquin, 
 I persuaded the captain to make the vessel 
 look as if she was more or less in distress, 
 and to sail near the coast. I kept my men 
 132 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 under cover as much as possible, and hoped 
 that some of these pirates might be induced 
 to attack us. But unluckily none of them 
 swallowed my bait, and we got down to 
 Singapore without any particular adventure. 
 
 Singapore was very hot, and while we 
 were there I lost my orderly, Goorditt Sing. 
 He accidentally fell overboard, and as he 
 had any amount of gold around him in belts 
 and other contrivances he disappeared and 
 was never seen again. 
 
 From Singapore we sailed for Calcutta in 
 beautiful weather, for the most part calm 
 and the very lightest of airs, up through the 
 Bay of Bengal, through the Mergui Archi- 
 pelago — a series of beautiful islands covered 
 to the water's edge with verdure. Through 
 the whole of February 1861 we went on 
 progressing slowly and steadily. 
 
 During this time I, having a boat of four 
 oars always at my disposal, turned turtle- 
 fisher. I got our captain to send a hand 
 up to the cross-trees to report " turtle " lioat- 
 ing upon the water. When " turtle on the 
 lee-bow " was reported, I said, " Lower my 
 boat," and off we went, I lying down in the 
 bow with my arm over the side. When we 
 got within a hundred yards or so of a turtle 
 it became necessary to discover which was 
 his hinder end. So we sculled up to him 
 
 133 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 silently and slowly with the two aft oars 
 only, and when we reached him I caught 
 hold of one hind-leg and held on. The 
 men then came forward, and, having got a 
 couple of oars under him, prised him up and 
 hauled him in by his hind-legs. We gave 
 him a piece of wood to bite, and as a turtle 
 never lets go he became quite harmless. I 
 caught four or five turtles nearly every day, 
 and considered myself to be rather an expert 
 at the sport. We kept the turtles in the 
 boats, which had been filled with sea-water. 
 I gave all of them to the captain, and he 
 sold them to the hotels in Calcutta. 
 
 In the course of our voyage we sailed up 
 the coast of the Andaman Islands, and passed 
 through the channel between the middle 
 island and the north island. I had a good 
 look at Narcondam, a very peculiar-looking 
 island named after a Dutch navigator. It is 
 in shape like a Stilton cheese and has per- 
 pendicular sides, with 300 fathoms of water 
 thirty yards from it. 
 
 134 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Long leave : My marriage and honeymoon : An amusing 
 landlord Roulette at Baden-Baden : My luck : The 
 Brazilian . Homburg : Married life : Reorganisation of 
 the Indian Army : We go to Calcutta 
 
 WHEN we reached Calcutta the 
 regiment was immediately sent 
 up to Meerut, a very good 
 station, and I applied for six 
 months' leave to England on " urgent private 
 affairs." Leave was refused, and I was par- 
 ticularly disgusted with this, as if I took 
 more than six months' leave I should lose 
 my appointment as second in command, and 
 under the old rules of the East India Com- 
 pany I was, at that time, entitled to three 
 years' leave. I had, however, been engaged 
 to be married for five years, and I meant 
 going ; so I booked my passage in a P. & O. 
 steamer and sailed on April lo. 
 
 Taking this long leave was most unfortu- 
 nate for me, as far as my military career was 
 concerned. For not only did I lose my 
 regiment, but in the following year, 1862, 
 the whole army was reorganised and the 
 Staif Corps formed ; and when I returned 
 in January 1864, I found that I had been 
 completely forgotten, and was practically a 
 "waif and stray." I shall have more to say 
 
 135 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 on this point when I relate what happened 
 when I went back to India. 
 
 But, on the other hand, fortune smiled 
 upon me when, on July 3, 1861, I made a 
 most happy marriage. Indeed, I cannot 
 think that any man had a happier married 
 life than mine, whether with my first or my 
 second wife, and I hope that even those who 
 think that one ought not to speak publicly 
 of such things will pardon me for expressing 
 my gratitude for so much happiness. 
 
 I started home in the P. & O. steamer 
 Indus, but as there was no canal at that time 
 she only took us to Suez. From Alexandria 
 to Marseilles we travelled on a fast paddle- 
 steamer, and in the Gulf of Lyons we 
 encountered a most furious gale. George 
 Allen of the Pioneers, Dobbin, R.A., and 
 I travelled together across France, and, 
 going by Boulogne and Folkestone, we beat 
 the mails to England. 
 
 I remember landing at Folkestone on 
 Sunday, May 12, as the bells were ringing 
 for afternoon service, and going straight to 
 the Pavilion Hotel. On the next morning 
 I woke early, and with the window wide 
 open and the birds singing I felt sure I was 
 the most fortunate man in the kingdom, and 
 going to be married to the best girl. Not 
 a soul was expecting me for another month, 
 ij6 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 for I had been careful to take everyone by 
 surprise. I had lots of money, and three 
 portmanteaux full of Indian, Indo-English, 
 and Chinese jewellery, furs, silks, the Em- 
 peror's watch, embroidered petticoats, every- 
 thing, in fact, that I had been collecting for 
 five years. And then, in addition, I had a 
 ton and a half of heavier things coming 
 round the Cape in the Forerunner. Truly, 
 I felt that the v^orld v\^as a very good 
 place. 
 
 I sent a wire to my fiancee to say that I 
 should be at Allesley for lunch at 1.30, and 
 when her mother heard that I was coming 
 she remarked, " How terrible ! We were 
 going to have up the carpets to-morrow for 
 spring-cleaning." But I am glad to know 
 that there were others in that house who 
 were not appalled by the thought that the 
 " spring-cleaning " would be upset ! 
 
 I stayed in the village for some days, and 
 then had to go to London to get some 
 clothes. I went to my club, the East Indian 
 United Service, drew the winner of the 
 Derby in the Club Sweepstakes, and returned 
 to Warwickshire. 
 
 We were married, as I have said, on 
 July 3, and arranged to travel on the Con- 
 tinent for our honeymoon. After waiting 
 at Folkestone for a good crossing, we arrived 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 in Paris, and stayed at an hotel, in which, 
 I remember, the furniture was very grand to 
 look at, and quite impossible to use. Our 
 room was crammed with a variety of ward- 
 robes, which contained any number of 
 drawers capable of holding a book apiece, 
 but which were absolutely useless for clothes 
 and nearly everything else. 
 
 From Paris we went to Cologne, then 
 down the Rhine to Basle, and from there to 
 Lucerne, where we stayed a considerable 
 time at the Schweitzerhof. From Lucerne 
 we made several excursions, driving over the 
 Briinig pass to Meiringen ; and afterwards 
 we took the steamer on the Lake of Brienz 
 to Interlaken, where we stayed a long time 
 at the Hotel des Alpes, the landlord of which 
 hotel amused us very much. 
 
 One day when I was complaining of the 
 bad quality of the beef, he said, " What 
 would you ? In this country we milk the 
 cow until she will milk no longer ; we then 
 put her into the plough until she can work 
 no longer ; and then we make her into beef 
 for you English." A frank, if not altogether 
 satisfactory, explanation. 
 
 From Interlaken we went to Lauter- 
 brunnen, Miirren, and by the Wengern Alp 
 to Grindelwald, when we began to think of 
 our return. Gradually working our way 
 138 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 northwards through Thun and Berne, we 
 came by easy stages to Baden-Baden, and 
 there I made my first acquaintance with 
 roulette. We stayed at the Hotel d'Angle- 
 terrc, quite close to the Kursaal, and I re- 
 solved that, as I was now a happy married 
 man, I would not go in for any big risks. 
 
 Accordingly, I put £20 into a separate 
 purse, and said to myself, " There you are, 
 Jim, you can amuse yourself with that, but 
 when it is gone you will get no more as long 
 as you stay here." We went to the tables, 
 my wife taking her work and sitting on a 
 sofa near me, and in two days I had con- 
 verted that /^20 into jTSoo. Then I said to 
 her, " Money goes, but jewellery remains. 
 There are some very nice shops here, and 
 you can have what you like out of the 
 winnings." 
 
 My wife had lived most of her life quietly 
 in the country, and had not, I suppose, ever 
 had such a free hand. Consequently, she 
 only spent about >Cioo, and I went on 
 playing, and lost all that remained of the 
 _^8oo, and £^ of my original ^^20. 
 
 Reduced to ^^15, I still continued to play, 
 and luck turned. People often say " Fortune 
 smiled on us " ; in my case she must simply 
 have roared with laughter. It seemed as if 
 I could not do wrong. Always remembering 
 
 139 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 that the pull of the table was against me, 
 I never stayed more than half an hour at 
 a time. 
 
 My daily programme was something of 
 this kind. I would go to the table when it 
 opened at 1 1 a.m., stay my half-hour, win 
 from X^50o to /^looo, and then go for a 
 walk with my wife. After that we lunched, 
 and about half-past two I used to have 
 another turn with much the same result, 
 and then we would go for a drive. After 
 dinner I put in a third half-hour, and in- 
 variably found it profitable. 
 
 By this time I always played the maximum 
 (£^So) on the even chances, and sometimes 
 I had an inspiration and felt sure that I knew 
 what would turn up. This, however, was 
 rare, though I remember one instance well. 
 I was certain that " Trente-six, rouge, pair, 
 et passe " would turn up, and told all my 
 neighbours, who were constantly asking me 
 to place their stakes for them because I was 
 so lucky. 
 
 For myself, I had the maximum on red, 
 and I recollect that I had a pile of double 
 Fredericks, as high as they would stand, on 
 the column. I counted them as three to a 
 _^5 note, and after the first few days I always 
 played in them. Day after day I continued 
 to win. My place at the table was always 
 140 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 kept for me, and I found myself pointed to 
 as the man " who always won." One after- 
 noon I remember particularly, for, after 
 wmning a considerable stake, I backed the 
 red for the maximum eleven times running. 
 Then I stopped, thinking it could not come 
 up again ; but it came up thirteen times 
 consecutively, and on this the head croupier 
 turned to me and said, " Voila, Monsieur, 
 you would have broken the bank." 
 
 My wonderful luck continued for several 
 more days, until, in fact, a Brazilian gentle- 
 man arrived and stood opposite to me on the 
 other side of the table. I liked his face, but 
 he appeared to be considering me rather 
 closely, and I remember thinking him very 
 strongly magnetic. He began by backing 
 zero, and up it came. This was something 
 quite new, for previously I had not been at 
 all troubled by zero. From this time I 
 could not win ; zero came up twice in about 
 five times, and shortly afterwards, having 
 lost considerably, I left the table. I tried 
 again the next day, but the Brazilian 
 was there and I could do nothing but 
 lose. 
 
 I had lost a lot in those two days, but was 
 still well to the good. So I thought it was 
 time to leave Baden-Baden, and as my wife 
 was ready to move we went on to Homburg, 
 
 141 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 which was very gay, with crowds of people 
 and the Kursaal in full swing. 
 
 Again I put _^20 into a separate purse, 
 and on the first day turned it into £60. 
 Whereupon I divided this sum into J^zo for 
 profit, jTzo for my original stake, and the 
 remaining _^2o to do what we liked with. 
 But fortune resented this elementary system 
 of division, and I found myself continually 
 struggling with a five-franc piece. I had, 
 however, one rather remarkable inspiration ; 
 for as my wife and I were walking through 
 the rooms one morning, the croupier spun 
 the marble for the first time. I knew at 
 once what was coming, and said, "Twenty- 
 eight, black," to my wife. I tried to get 
 out my purse in time, but was too late. If 
 my experience had been as great as it was 
 afterwards, I should have backed 28 by 
 putting my purse on the number and saying, 
 " La limite." 
 
 We stayed for a week in Homburg, and 
 then went on to Cologne and Spa. At Spa, 
 of course, I tried the tables, but with no 
 success, and from there we went on to 
 Brussels and so home, after a most delight- 
 fully happy three months. 
 
 After spending several enjoyable weeks 
 with relations, I took a house for the winter 
 in the Holly Walk at Leamington, and 
 142 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 became a member of the Bedford Street 
 Club. During this time I speculated freely 
 and successfully in Cornish and Devon mines. 
 Altogether the years '6i and '62 were very 
 fortunate and happy ones for me. 
 
 I do not, however, propose to weary my 
 readers with a chronicle of all the small 
 events of a quiet and contented married life. 
 This book is not intended to be a biography, 
 and is only meant to contain incidents and 
 events which may, I trust, prove of interest 
 to someone. 
 
 Now I must mention an event which, at 
 any rate, was of considerable interest and 
 importance to me. In 1862 Her Majesty 
 took over the Government and Army of 
 India, and all the officers of the Indian 
 Army were given the choice of three 
 options : 
 
 I St. To remain in their old regiment 
 under its new name, serving when out of 
 India on English pay. 
 
 My regiment became the 2nd Battalion ot 
 the 104th. 
 
 2nd. To remain on the cadre of the old 
 regiment, with no reasonable chance of 
 employment. This was called doing general 
 duty. 
 
 3rd. The Staff Corps. 
 
 I elected for this last and was appointed 
 
 143 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 to it from the date of its formation in 
 1862. 
 
 By the end of '63 I had come nearly to 
 the end of my finances, so I took passages 
 in the P. & O. for my wife, her maid, and 
 myself. We broke down in the Red Sea, 
 and were five days at anchor off Jeddo, but 
 we reached Calcutta by the first week of 
 January '64. 
 
 144 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 An unsatisfactory interview : A swindle : Kindness of 
 the Viceroy : More interviews : Barrackpore : The great 
 cyclone 
 
 HAVING reported my arrival, I 
 interviewed the military pay- 
 master, Colonel Martin, a most 
 excellent officer and a very good 
 fellow. 
 
 "You probably know," I said, "that 1 
 joined the Staff Corps in '62, and am now 
 of rather more than fourteen years and six 
 months' service, with more than four years 
 of it on the staff. Now, I have never seen 
 myself in general orders as Captain." 
 
 " That is all very well," he replied, " but 
 the Department decrees that leave does not 
 count for service as regards the four years 
 on the staff." 
 
 " I have read the Staff Corps warrant very 
 carefully," I said, " and it distinctly states 
 that every officer shall be Captain when he 
 has completed twelve years' service, four ot 
 which must have been on the staff. There 
 is not a word about ' leave not counting ' 
 in the warrant. I am therefore due to re- 
 ceive the difference of pay between the rank 
 of Captain and that of Lieutenant from 
 June 27, 1 86 1, to this date." 
 
 K 145 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 " I may perhaps agree with you," he 
 admitted, " but at the same time I must obey 
 the Departmental orders. I have also to 
 give you some further disagreeable informa- 
 tion, for as you are now in Calcutta you are 
 on half batta, and your pay is only i8i 
 rupees 12 annas per month." 
 
 "This is even a bigger swindle than the 
 other," I said. " Why, the half batta order 
 is one of the old East India Company's rules. 
 How can it possibly apply to me, when I 
 am in the Staff Corps .? " 
 
 " I am afraid that is all the pay you will 
 get," he replied, and his fears were only too 
 well founded. 
 
 For it was all I did get until I was 
 appointed to the Loodiana Sikhs at Dorunda, 
 Chota Nagpur, in October of that year. 
 Then the half batta stopped, but I never 
 received Captain's pay until I was over six- 
 teen years in the service. And I consider 
 that this was one of the biggest swindles ever 
 perpetrated by a Government. Eighteen 
 months afterwards they gave me the back 
 rank, but never the pay, and by that time 
 the back rank was very little good, for I 
 had been passed over. 
 
 What I ought to have done was to have 
 sued the Government in the High Court. 
 I must have gained my case, as anyone can 
 146 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 see if he will take the trouble to read over 
 the Staff Corps warrant. 
 
 As it was, I found myself in Calcutta with 
 my wife, a lady's maid, and very few rupees 
 in my pocket. They allotted me quarters 
 in the Rampart Barracks in Fort WiUiam, 
 for which they made me pay a high rent. 
 There was no furniture whatever in my 
 quarters, and this I had to get. 
 
 My wife faced our difficulties most bravely, 
 and we soon knew everybody in Calcutta. 
 My old Colonel, now General Sir George 
 Showers, commanded the division, and we 
 went everywhere and received any amount 
 of sympathy. Dinners, balls, picnics to the 
 Botanical Gardens, and parties of all sorts 
 made life very pleasant, for although we 
 may be said to have had no money and my 
 pay was infinitesimal, my wife had plenty 
 of frocks and jewellery. 
 
 Just after we had settled down in our 
 quarters, the new Viceroy, Lord Lawrence, 
 arrived, and took up his abode at Govern- 
 ment House. Within a few days he gave 
 his first dinner party, to which we were 
 asked, and as his staff were more or less 
 new to the place and the work, the pairing 
 off of the guests was not quite efficient. I 
 found myself a free-lance, and therefore 
 looked out for a seat as near as possible to 
 
 147 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 Lord Lawrence. He took in a Mrs. Bright, 
 the wife, of course, of some high official, and 
 I, seeing my opportunity, sat on the lady's 
 other side. 
 
 During dinner Lord Lawrence began to 
 explain to this lady how curious it seemed 
 to him to come out to India as Viceroy. 
 " When I was twelve years in the service," 
 he said, " I was here in this town and only 
 drawing 400 rupees a month. I was seriously 
 thinking of going to Australia." 
 
 As soon as he had finished speaking I 
 leant across and said, " My case, my lord, 
 is much harder than yours ; for I have 
 been nearly fifteen years in the service and 
 am only drawing 181 rupees 12 annas." 
 
 " What ! " he exclaimed. " Why, you 
 were at Delhi ! " 
 
 "Yes," I said, and then he told me to 
 come and see him on the following day, and 
 assured me that he would give me any 
 appointment in his gift for which I con- 
 sidered myself fit. 
 
 On the next morning I went first to 
 interview the Civil Secretary, and he showed 
 me a list of appointments, some of which, 
 especially the political ones, were very good 
 indeed. 
 
 "This," I said, "will do for me, I think," 
 and I pointed to one of them. 
 148 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 " The trouble is," the Secretary replied, 
 " that all these civil and political appoint- 
 ments require you to pass in honours in 
 two languages and in a knowledge of Indian 
 Law." 
 
 " Thank you," I said ; " what else have 
 you got ? " 
 
 " Well," he answered, " all the Viceroy's 
 appointments require something of the sort, 
 but we are just going to make a new 
 appointment. This is Deputy Superin- 
 tendent of the Andaman Islands, and the 
 pay is 600 rupees a month." 
 
 " That means, of course, in addition to 
 one's pay as Staff Corps Lieutenant .? " I 
 asked. 
 
 " No, consolidated," was the reply, and I 
 informed him that I was not going to gaol 
 on 600 rupees a month consolidated. 
 
 I must here explain that in the Andaman 
 Islands is the great convict establishment ot 
 India, as many as 15,000 prisoners at a time 
 being kept there. The principal harbour is 
 Port Blair, and the garrison consisted then 
 of two companies of a European regiment 
 from Rangoon. 
 
 The appointment of Superintendent was 
 a very good one, and not made less so by 
 the fact that he always had a small steamer 
 at his disposal. There were several medical 
 
 149 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 officers in residence, and it must have been 
 an economical place to live in, for I never 
 heard of any shops, and the amusements of 
 so limited a society could not have been 
 very expensive. I also heard that prisoners 
 for life, especially murderers, made very 
 good servants, and there was a large selec- 
 tion to choose from ! None of these 
 attractions, however, made me anxious to 
 take my wife to the Andaman Islands. 
 
 Having failed with the Civil Secretary, I 
 went across and interviewed the Military 
 Secretary. But the Viceroy's military ap- 
 pointments were either in Central India, 
 which meant five days' travelling in a palan- 
 quin to get there, or they were on the 
 further side of the Indus, a frightful climate 
 in the hot weather and about equally difficult 
 to get to or from. 
 
 One of the best appointments vacant was 
 second in command of a Punjab cavalry 
 regiment at Dera Ghazi Khan, as bad a 
 climate as could be found in India. Another 
 — and overwhelming — drawback was that I 
 should have been obliged to buy three 
 chargers, an impossible thing for me to do 
 at that time. 
 
 It has always been my luck to be on the 
 best of terms with Viceroys, but Com- 
 manders-in-Chief have looked upon me with 
 150 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 a different eye. I thanked Lord Lawrence, 
 and told him how very sorry I was not to 
 find something that suited me. Then I 
 wrote various appHcations to the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, which General Showers 
 backed up with most strong recommenda- 
 tions ; but the result of our efforts was 
 exactly nothing. 
 
 Presently the second in command of a 
 native regiment at Barrackpore fell vacant, 
 and I applied for this, and the General 
 appointed me temporarily, pending orders 
 from headquarters. This regiment I found 
 to be in a very queer state. They had just 
 got a new commanding officer, and he had 
 put every officer in the regiment under 
 arrest, and almost all the rank and file were 
 doing extra drill. I managed to get on very 
 well with the commanding officer, but I was 
 the only man who did. However, I did not 
 have a long experience of him, for after a 
 month I returned to Calcutta, the appoint- 
 ment having been filled up. 
 
 While we were at Barrackpore, the great 
 cyclone of June 4, 1864, the worst that has 
 ever been known, occurred. We had a 
 very good bungalow, which we shared with 
 a young fellow of the 52nd and his wife. 
 It had just been done up, and looked both 
 sound and strong. The bungalow had 
 
 151 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 seventeen rooms, one of which, fortunately, 
 had a flat roof. The rest was newly and 
 well thatched. 
 
 The storm began at 9 a.m., and increased 
 tremendously and alarmingly. A pillar of 
 the verandah was blown down, and in less 
 than a minute the whole roof was carried 
 away. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. 
 We had to get into the drawing-room, and 
 there we barred the doors with boxes and 
 everything we could find. After a little 
 time I said that I would go and see if I 
 could find quarters in some flat-roofed house 
 for us, and I managed to get to the Grand 
 Parade, on the edge of which were the 
 artillery guns, limbers, &c., under a big 
 corrugated iron roof. 
 
 The limbers and carts were blowing about 
 all over the place, just like children's toys. 
 The guns alone resisted the cyclone. All 
 the stables, both R.A. and Lahore Light 
 Horse, were blown down. Over a hundred 
 horses were loose, and fighting on the 
 Maidan. Even some of the men's bar- 
 racks had been hurled to the ground. The 
 telegraph wires, being twisted round trees 
 which had been uprooted, made the roads 
 quite impassable for any trafiic. A river 
 steamer, with two flats, anchored in the 
 middle of the Hooghly, was sunk. Seventy 
 152 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 steamers and large sailing-ships were thrown 
 up on the Mall in Calcutta ; the place was 
 simply covered with them. One might go 
 on recounting the disasters caused by this 
 cyclone for almost any length of time. 
 
 While I was out looking for a shelter for 
 us, the air was full of great branches of trees, 
 and the noise was terrific. I walked into 
 the park to see if any of the Staff bungalows 
 were available, but they were not. I could 
 not keep on any road, but was blown here, 
 there, and all over the place. 
 
 I stood for a few moments on the wind- 
 ward side, you may be sure, of a tall casuarina 
 tree. The casuarina is an Australian tree 
 of very hard wood, and carries no sail. 
 The trunk is without a bough of any sort 
 for 70 feet, and the tree has a feathery 
 kind of head. I had my back to it, and 
 tliinking that I had heard a sharper noise than 
 usual, I turned to look ; and the tree, which 
 is one of the toughest and strongest of trees, 
 had gone right away at a yard from the 
 ground. 
 
 I got back to the remains of our bungalow 
 feeling as if my breast-bone had been blown 
 against my spine. Tons of bricks had fallen 
 on our beds, and the place was quite unin- 
 habitable. A great many natives had been 
 killed, but, is far as I heard, no Europeans. 
 
 153 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 The behaviour of the birds was very curious ; 
 they were all on the ground, collected be- 
 hind walls, and as I walked by them perhaps 
 one or two would get up. These, directly 
 they spread their wings, were flattened 
 against the walls. The crows seemed to 
 suffer the most damage. 
 
 Very soon I had to go out to try again 
 for a place to shelter ourselves. I knew 
 most of the people in the station, but my 
 hopes rested mainly upon Colonel Swinhoe's 
 house, which had a flat roof, and when I 
 found the Colonel and his wife they very 
 cordially agreed to take us in. By about 
 6 P.M. the cyclone had moderated, and after 
 a great deal of difficulty, and with the help 
 of my orderly, we eventually got the ladies 
 to places of safety and comfort. 
 
 Some time passed before the road to 
 Calcutta was cleared, but large fatigue 
 parties of troops worked at it daily, and in a 
 few days we were able to get back to our 
 quarters in Fort William. 
 
 154 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 At Dorunda : G. : March to Ferozepore : Quarrels and 
 plain speaking • I am put under arrest . But in spite of 
 this am appointed Acting Magistrate : I ofter to go to 
 Abyssinia : Morndabad 
 
 DURING these impecunious days I 
 could not, of course, help getting 
 into debt, but I think that 1200 
 rupees were the extent of my 
 liabilities, and I do not consider that this 
 showed very bad management. We were 
 fortunate enough to get my wife's maid well 
 married to a large shopkeeper, and we were 
 very glad that she was able to do so well for 
 herself, since we were not in a position to do 
 much for her. 
 
 At length, some time in October, I was 
 appointed wing officer of the 15th Loodiana 
 Sikhs. All numbers of regiments It ad been 
 changed at the reorganisation in '62, and 
 this was not the 15th I had formerly 
 belonged to. 
 
 It was a first-rate regiment and was com- 
 manded by a first-rate man, Lieut. -Colonel 
 R. Barter, and under his command we con- 
 sidered ourselves to be very well off. Hal 
 Fellowes was second in command, and he 
 became my greatest friend. Never was 
 there a better fellow. We became insepar- 
 ables, and I was truly sorry when he left 
 
 155 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 (through getting a better appointment), even 
 though I felt fairly certain that I should 
 succeed to his post. Barter, indeed, strongly 
 recommended me for it, but as usual the 
 chief thought otherwise, and put in a man, 
 to whom I will merely refer as G., over my 
 head. 
 
 Dorunda was a capital station wdth a 
 remarkably cool climate, being about 
 2200 feet above the level of the sea, and 
 after Calcutta it seemed like Paradise. The 
 civil station of Ranchi was about a mile off, 
 and the Commissioner, Colonel Dalton, had 
 a very fine house, with beautiful gardens, 
 between the civil and military stations. 
 Croquet was the fashion, and we had several 
 capital matches, Military v. Civil. In fact 
 we all pulled well together. 
 
 And then G. arrived and things began to 
 change. For myself I can say that in a long 
 life 1 have found it perfectly easy to get on 
 with nearly every man, but t could not get 
 on with G. My dog Peter was of the same 
 opinion as I was, and went for G. whenever 
 he saw him. 
 
 The natives said ot this man that he was 
 always riding either an elephant or a donkey, 
 and they are generally right about their 
 officers. One day he would fawn upon me, 
 and I have known him to come into my 
 156 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 room, when I was suffering from neuralgia, 
 and kneeling down by the side of my bed 
 try to kiss my hand. But on most days he 
 was just ordinarily disagreeable, and I liked 
 him better — if I can possibly be said to have 
 liked him at all — when he was intentionally 
 unpleasant. 
 
 We stayed in Dorunda for two years, and 
 in October '66 were ordered to march to 
 Ferozepore, a distance of over a thousand 
 miles. If G. had not been present this 
 march would have been quite delightful. 
 Most of the officers were present, and so 
 Dick Barter allowed all the ladies to be 
 honorary members of the mess. 
 
 Our course for almost the whole march 
 was on the Grand Trunk road through Gya, 
 Allahabad, Delhi, Umballa, &c. Barter had 
 formerly been in the 75th Foot, and so we 
 had been on the Ridge together in '57. We 
 spent a most interesting day in taking our 
 wives over the battlefield. 
 
 We arrived in Ferozepore in March. It 
 is one of the hottest stations in India, but it 
 has a very pleasant cold-weather season, which 
 lasts until the crops are cut about the end of 
 March. In April I got short leave, and took 
 my wife up to the hill station of Dalhousie, 
 where we hired a small bungalow. But 
 when I returned to Ferozepore I found the 
 
 157 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 weather frightful ; even at midnight in the 
 coolest house in the place the thermometer 
 stood at I io°. 
 
 By the middle of October, when the ladies 
 had come down from the hills, the climate 
 was almost perfect. Nothing particular 
 happened, but we had the usual parades and 
 some amusements, including Umballa races. 
 On St. George's Day the 5th Fusiliers 
 marched in, and gave us great entertain- 
 ment. 
 
 G. and I were still antagonists, and we had 
 many small rows, without, however, arriving 
 at an open quarrel. But after we had been 
 inspected by General Rainier, commanding 
 the Lahore Division, and given great satis- 
 faction to him. Barter took leave to the hills. 
 This left G. in command of the regiment, 
 though only for ten days, as Barter, meaning 
 to take his long leave later on, intended to — 
 and did — return after that time. 
 
 I was made President of the Mess, in 
 succession to G., and finding a large deficit 
 in the accounts I did not mince matters, but 
 said what I thought of him, which happened 
 to be that I considered him a swindler. Of 
 this candid opinion he, however, took no 
 notice. All of us were without our wives 
 at the time, and G. was chumming with 
 a Major Rowlands, of the 5th Fusiliers. 
 158 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 When be told the story to Rowlands the 
 latter asked what he had done about it. 
 G. confessed that he had done nothing, 
 " Of course, you ought to have put him 
 under arrest. Do you mean to say you 
 have not done so .? " Rowlands asked. 
 
 During the next day the Adjutant came 
 for my sword, and told me that I was under 
 arrest. As I declared that what I had stated 
 was the truth and that nothing would induce 
 me to apologise, a Court of Inquiry was 
 ordered by the Commander-in-Chief, and I 
 remained under arrest for several weeks. 
 
 During this time, when the cantonment 
 magistrate had taken leave, to my great 
 astonishment I was made acting magistrate, 
 and I carried on the work of the office until 
 he returned at the end of the two months. 
 As I was thus appointed to another post, it 
 was clear that any fault I might have com- 
 mitted had been condoned. But I knew that 
 I had done a very foolish thing in choosing 
 a time when G. was in command of the regi- 
 ment, and I began to think that my military 
 career might possibly have come to an end. 
 
 The Abyssinian Campaign was then on, 
 and I wrote to the Punjab Government 
 offering to raise a regiment of a thousand 
 Sikhs, and to take them to Abyssinia. They 
 wrote back to say that they did not want 
 
 159 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 any men, as they had already raised 1700, 
 but that they would be glad if I would take 
 them to Abyssinia. 
 
 In the meantime they had written to the 
 General commanding the Lahore Division to 
 ask what manner of man was this Lieutenant 
 Harris, who had offered to raise a regiment 
 of Sikhs. The General replied that he 
 considered Lieutenant Harris to be one of the 
 best officers in his division, and that if the 
 Punjab Government could obtain his ser- 
 vices they might consider themselves very 
 fortunate. 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief was then Sir 
 William Mansfield, a man I had never met. 
 His orders upon the Court of Inquiry were 
 that Captain G. should pay up the money 
 found to be missing, as the deficiency might 
 be due solely to his carelessness ; that my 
 conduct amounted almost to insubordination ; 
 and that I was to be sent to do general duty 
 at Lahore. 
 
 Lahore was only fifty miles away, and 
 there my wife and I took a small house in 
 the cantonment. On my arrival I went to 
 interview Colonel Black, Military Secretary 
 to the Punjab Government, and I told him 
 that I had not beard anything more about 
 the 1700 Sikhs. 
 
 " That," he said, " will be all right. You 
 160 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 are to have the highest staff allowance that 
 we can give, 400 rupees a month." And 
 then he added that he would wire at once to 
 the Imperial Government for my services, 
 and that I should start some time during the 
 following week. He also told me that the 
 General had reported very highly upon me. 
 
 On the following morning I received two 
 letters. One was the answer from the 
 Imperial Government : " Lieutenant Harris 
 having been removed from the 15th Sikhs 
 for misconduct, his services are not avail- 
 able." The other letter was from the 
 Commander-in-Chief, who said that he 
 considered that in my case there were 
 extenuating circumstances, and that he had 
 much pleasure in offering me the appoint- 
 ment of station staff at Moradabad. 
 
 My wife and I held a council over these 
 letters. I knew that I had only to call on 
 Colonel Black and show him the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief's letter ; and that he would 
 then apply again to the Imperial Govern- 
 ment, and that I should almost certainly get 
 the Abyssinian appointment. This would 
 probably mean that my wife and I would 
 have to part, and that she must go home 
 to England — an expensive journey — with 
 the added burden of having afterwards to 
 keep up two separate establishments. 
 
 L 161 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 On the other hand, although the pay was 
 small, Moradabad was a very good climate, 
 only 70 miles from the hill station of Nynee 
 Tal, and it was easy to get there. Eventually 
 we elected to go to Moradabad. 
 
 I must add that when we left Ferozepore 
 we had a great send-ofF, almost all the 
 station coming to say good-bye and wish us 
 good luck. I remember saying that G. would 
 be in Lahore Gaol before six months had 
 passed, and I have never made a truer 
 prophecy. Within three months he was 
 there for a dreadful crime. In fact, the 
 case was so frightful that it was never 
 tried, and G. was removed quietly from the 
 Army, without court-martial, "Her Majesty 
 having no further occasion for his services." 
 
 Some of my readers may be disposed to 
 think that it would have been wiser not 
 to have mentioned G. at all, but he had a 
 very great effect on my life and prospects, 
 and I had to account for my removal from 
 my regiment. Also I withed to show that 
 I am not naturally quarrelsome, and that I 
 was justified in my opinion of this man. 
 
 T62 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Butterfly : The Meerut Tent Club . A chronicle : A 
 picnic worth remembering 
 
 WE had an easy journey to Mo- 
 radabad, . and before starting I 
 bought at Lahore Races a very 
 handsome country-bred mare, 
 called Butterfly, which had been cast from 
 the Government stud as barren. She was 
 seventh in descent from Eclipse, and was the 
 nucleus of my racing stable. Indeed, she 
 proved to be a splendid bargain, for I won 
 seventeen races with her. 
 
 Moradabad was a very pleasant place, 
 with a good race-course and racquet court. 
 It was also a civil station, and the terminus 
 of the Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi railway. 
 The garrison was only a regiment of native 
 infantry and a wing of a European regiment. 
 Late in April my wife went up to Nynee 
 Tal, and I used frequently to get ten days' 
 leave and ride up, starting early, and getting 
 there in time for dinner. This, in the rains, 
 became rather an awkward job, for I had to 
 cross two considerable rivers in flood, but 
 Butterfly evinced a talent for swimming, and 
 thoroughly enjoyed herself. 
 
 The cold weather of '66-67 ^^^ most 
 enjoyable, and among other pleasing events 
 
 163 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 we were invited to a meeting of the Meerut 
 Tent Club, for the Kadir Cup. This took 
 place only 46 miles away, and so we drove 
 to the bridge over the Ganges at Gurmuck- 
 tesur, where our friend sent an elephant to 
 meet us. On this visit I had my first 
 experience of pig-sticking, and enjoyed it 
 thoroughly. It is, I think, the best sport in 
 the world. Mellor, of the Civil Service, pro- 
 vided us with tents and everything, and we 
 spent a most excellent five days with the Tent 
 Club. That year there were, if I remember 
 rightly, thirty-two entries for the Cup, and 
 Tom Studdyofthe Artillery was the winner. 
 
 While looking over the records of this 
 club someone discovered the following 
 chronicle, and had fifty copies of it printed. 
 One of these was given to me, and although 
 the chronicle must be known to some of my 
 readers, I venture to think that it will bear 
 repetition. It is an account of the origin ot 
 the Kadir Cup. 
 
 " Taken from the records of the Meerut 
 Tent Club. 
 
 " Translation of part of a cuneiform in- 
 scription found at Germ-ok-taza, supposed 
 to be a portion of the Book of Spawt. 
 
 " And it came to pass in those days that 
 Fawben ^ was a ruler in the land, and 
 
 ' Forbes, the magistrate and collector of Meerut. 
 164 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 collected taxes for the king and administered 
 justice to the people. And a great cry arose 
 throughout the land from Delhi even unto 
 Port,i and the people came unto Fawben 
 saying : ' We are mightily oppressed by the 
 unclean beast, and our bellies cleave unto the 
 ground through fear of him, for he hath 
 increased and multiplied exceedingly, and 
 trampleth down our vineyards and devoureth 
 our corn, and no man can stand before him. 
 Come now and help us, or we shall die, we 
 and our little ones.' And when Fawben 
 heard this he was sore troubled, and called to 
 HilP the scribe, and Hill the scribe, having 
 girded up his loins, came and stood and 
 bowed before Fawben. And Fawben said 
 unto him, ' Write now unto my young men, 
 and say unto them, " Why tarry ye in your 
 tents whilst the unclean beast vexeth the 
 land ? Are your spears rusty or your horses 
 lame ? Ye are called mighty hunters, but 
 your mothers know not that ye are out, and 
 ye tarry amongst your womenfolk that they 
 may cherish your poor feet. Give them 
 now your garments and take ye theirs, that 
 they may come out and slay the unclean 
 beast." ' And Hill the scribe wrote as 
 Fawben commanded him. Then great 
 
 ^ One of the meets of the Tent Club. 
 2 Hill, the assistant magistrate. 
 
 165 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 shame fell upon the young men, and they 
 smote their breasts and rent their garments, 
 so that the tailors rejoiced, and they said 
 among themselves, ' Woe to us because of 
 this thing. Verily our faces are blackened 
 this day.' And Fawben wrote again to the 
 young men, saying, ' Come now out unto 
 me, all ye that may, and bring your spears 
 and your horses, even the best that ye have, 
 and we will purge the land of the unclean 
 beast, even the soor,^ and slay him from the 
 rising of the sun to the going down of the 
 same, that the people may have rest.' And 
 when the young men heard this their hearts 
 were glad, and they made haste to do as 
 Fawben had said. And there gathered 
 together a great company to Shirpur, from 
 the east and from the west and from the 
 north and from the south, riding furiously 
 upon one-horse chariots. Of the tribe of 
 Topkhana- came Adg ^ that dwelleth upon 
 the hill of ravens, and Hazligg and Robos " 
 the mighty rider, and Bish^ the son of the 
 high priest ; and of the tribe of Hooza ^ 
 came Mulvil, the clerk, and Bedol,' that owned 
 the swift horses, and Barrur ® the beloved of 
 
 1 Pig. 2 Artillery. ^ Ravenshill, Adjutant R.A. 
 
 ' H.izlerigg and Roberts. 
 
 ^ Philpotts, son of the Bishop of Exeter. * Hussars. 
 
 '' Biddulph. 8 Barrow. 
 
 i66 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 women, whose head is Uke the sun, and 
 Weester^ the hairy man, and Dirzee^ and 
 many others ; and TafFy * the centurion of 
 the spearmen, from the land where the 
 people eat cheese roasted with fire ; Hamilt 
 the treasurer and Saptum * the wise judge, 
 and some of the tribe of Buff,^ the men that 
 are clothed in scarlet, all of them desirable 
 young men. And Fawben erected taber- 
 nacles for the young men, and gave them to 
 eat and to drink as much as they would, for 
 they were exceeding thirsty. 
 
 " And Fawben gathered together a great 
 multitude of the tribe of Hind, hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water, and they took 
 staves and instruments of music and smote 
 the bushes and shouted greatly, so that the 
 heart of the unclean beast became as water, 
 and he fled before them. And the young 
 men, having bound prickles on to their feet, 
 pursued the unclean beast and smote him 
 in the hinder parts and covered him with 
 shame ; and they strove greatly with one 
 another who should first smite him with the 
 spear, and they slew many, riding valiantly. 
 And divers of the unclean beasts, being pos- 
 sessed with a devil, turned upon the young 
 
 ' Webster. ^ Taylor. ^ Eardley Wilmot. 
 
 « Sapte, C.S. ^ The BufFs. 
 
 167 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 men and sought to rend them with their 
 tusks, and wounded many of their horses 
 grievously ; but for such the young men 
 stayed not their hands, nor did they cease 
 to smite them till they had destroyed them 
 utterly. 
 
 " And Barrur, whose head is as the sun, 
 smote one of the unclean beasts, and his 
 spear was loosed from his hand and his horse 
 fell upon the edge of the spear so that he 
 died : and men grieved greatly for the good 
 horse and for the man, though the latter 
 died not. 
 
 " And as the young men returned from 
 hunting, there came one to meet them, 
 riding furiously ; and when he came close 
 to them they saw that it was Hill the 
 scribe. And they asked him, 'Whence 
 comest thou.?' And he answered and said, 
 ' I am come from riding the beast Behe- 
 moth in the land beyond Gusy, where I 
 have slain many wild beasts, and now I am 
 come to help ye cleanse the land of the un- 
 clean animal,' and they said to him, ' Go to, 
 where now is thy brother scribe, he that 
 rideth the horse ^ that snappeth like a 
 dragon ? ' And he made answer and said, 
 
 '■ Snapdragon, an English horse. 
 
 i68 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 ' Verily he could not come, but his heart is 
 with you this day.' And when the young 
 men heard this, they were sorrowful and 
 held their peace. 
 
 " And Fawben made a feast for the young 
 men and said, ' Ye have done well this day ; 
 come now, eat, drink, and be merry.' And 
 he gave them to eat of bull's flesh, and kid, 
 and savoury meat, and sweet herbs and 
 spices, and provided them with water of the 
 brook Simkin,^ which is also called dry ; 
 and they were exceeding thirsty. And after 
 they had feasted, Fawben took a vessel of 
 silver in his hand and stood up and said, 
 ' Ye have done well this day, and have slain 
 many of the unclean beasts ; but there be 
 many that remain to vex the land, so this 
 cup shall be a sign to you, that ye shall not 
 be sparing of your horses until ye have 
 utterly destroyed the soors.' And he gave 
 the vessel of silver to Bedol, as a memorial, 
 for his horse was very swift. 
 
 " Then Bedol stood up and said, ' This 
 honour that Fawben hath done me, I am 
 not worthy of it ; is he not of the tribe of 
 Brix ? ' And the young men shouted with 
 one accord, ■■ Verily, he is chief among the 
 
 ' Hindustani for champagne. 
 
 169 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 tribe of Brix,' and they danced and made 
 merry before Fawben. And they con- 
 tinued thus for three days, slaying the un- 
 clean animals by day, and making merry by 
 night ; and whatsoever they desired to eat 
 or to drink, that did Fawben give them ; 
 and they were exceeding thirsty. All this 
 did Fawben the collector of taxes do, by 
 reason of his desire to cleanse the land." 
 ("The remainder of the inscription is 
 illegible.") 
 
 Another delightful picnic that we had in 
 the cold weather was given by the 37th 
 Regiment, of which we had a wing at 
 Moradabad. The headquarters and right 
 wing were at Bareilly, and the name of the 
 Colonel was John Davis. This picnic lasted 
 for a week, and was at a place called Moon- 
 dhia Ghat, just within the borders of Nepal, a 
 most beautiful spot on the banks of a fine 
 river — the Surjoo. The camp was pitched 
 on the banks of the river, in a forest of very 
 high trees, and the regimental mess and band 
 of the 37th were present. 
 
 In all there were twenty-eight of us, and 
 everyone was provided with a tent and an 
 elephant. The jungles were full of game, 
 including tigers, but it was the wrong time 
 of year for the latter, and we only got one 
 170 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 all the time we were out. King George 
 must have shot over the same ground after 
 the last Durbar, but with 600 elephants it 
 does not much matter how thick the jungle 
 is. Still, to get eighteen tigers to his own 
 rifle is a magnificent performance. 
 
 Picnics in India are something to think 
 of for the rest of one's life. I shall never 
 forget this one on the borders of Nepal ; it 
 was so splendidly done. Neither can I ever 
 forget the kindness of the 37th. 
 
 171 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 Simla : We go to Morar, Gwalior : Success of Butter- 
 fly : Colonel Gowan : We go home . An experience : 
 Back to India The favourite beaten . Lord Mayo 
 
 AFTERWARDS, when we went to 
 Simla, it was with the view of 
 having another interview with the 
 Commander-in-Chief, and of ask- 
 ing for another appointment. But, as usual, 
 my request failed. I have always found 
 Commanders-in-Chief to be kittle cattle. 
 
 Lord Lawrence was still Viceroy, and 
 Government House was the headquarters of 
 croquet. At that time I was considered 
 an expert at the game, and in consequence 
 we were very often at Government House. 
 The Viceroy's appointments were still open 
 to me, but as the examinations were as great 
 an obstacle as ever, I had to depend solely 
 upon the Chief of the Army. 
 
 About this time a Major Pierce, who 
 was doing general duty at Moradabad, was 
 appointed second in command of the 33rd 
 N.L at Morar, Gwalior. Knowing that he 
 would not like it, and my short leave being 
 just up, I returned at once, and asked him if 
 he would exchange with me, and he gladly 
 consented. 
 
 It is true that mine was a permanent 
 172 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 appointment, though a badly paid one, whilst 
 his was only temporary, the officer holding 
 the appointment having gone home for 
 eighteen months' leave. But I was most 
 anxious to get back to the Native Army. 
 And in the end, after some difficulty, I got 
 what I wanted, though I had to wait for 
 several years. 
 
 Gwalior, which was eighty miles south of 
 Agra, was a notoriously hot place. Its fort 
 was on a volcanic rock, rising sheer out of a 
 flat plain and looking right down upon 
 Scindhia's capital, the town of Gwalior. 
 We had put some heavy guns in the fort, 
 which were capable of knocking Scindhia's 
 palace and town into bits in a few minutes. 
 Scindhia, perhaps naturally, thought this a 
 most uncomfortable state of things, and was 
 always trying to persuade the Government 
 to give the fort up to him. 
 
 This fort, I may add, was practically 
 impregnable. The road to the fort lay 
 through seven different gateways, all of 
 which were commanded from the high 
 walls. It had never been taken by assault, 
 but was escaladed and surprised by Major 
 Popham very early in the century. 
 
 Morar, about three miles away, was our 
 cantonment. All our troops were there, 
 except the small artillery garrison in 
 
 173 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Gwalior. The garrison consisted of the 
 Devonshire Regiment, two native infantry 
 regiments, one native cavalry, and two bat- 
 teries of artillery, so that we had plenty of 
 society. 
 
 Besides balls, picnics, croquet, and Bad- 
 minton, we got up a three days' race meet- 
 ing. I was one of the stewards, and we 
 were able to persuade Scindhia's Vakeel 
 (Prime Minister) to give us a prize of the 
 value of 500 rupees. Captain W. Strahan, 
 of the Royal Artillery, won the Rajah's cup, 
 and I reserved Butterfly for the other races. 
 I won a race with her on both the first and 
 second days, and on the last day I was twice 
 successful. So Butterfly and I had some 
 reason to congratulate ourselves. 
 
 The 3 3rd were commanded then by Colonel 
 J. Gowan, a most unselfish and thoroughly 
 kind man, who was always trying to do his 
 neighbour a good turn. He was very good 
 to my wife and myself, and gave up the 
 larger part of his bungalow to us. He had 
 had a very bad time of it in the Mutiny, 
 for his regiment had mutinied and killed all 
 the officers they could find. For months he 
 had been compelled to hide in native villages 
 with native friends, who concealed him. 
 These friends used to come and see him at 
 Morar, and he was able to get them well 
 
 174 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 rewarded by the Government for their kind- 
 ness. The native soldiers loved him, and 
 yet the regiment was in a very bad state. 
 At the time I was extremely puzzled by this, 
 but later on I discovered the reasons. 
 
 We stayed with Gowan for eighteen 
 months, until the officer for whom I had 
 been officiating returned from England. 
 Then I found myself stranded and out of 
 employ, and had to do general duty at 
 Meerut. It was now the cold weather of 
 1870-71, and having completed twenty 
 years' service in June 1869, I was now 
 Major. 
 
 General duty, whether at Meerut or any- 
 where else, means doing nothing. While I 
 was engaged in this arduous work — and I 
 must have been so employed for over a year 
 — I had two duties to perform, one of which 
 was to sit in full uniform, as president of a 
 committee of two, on the retention or other- 
 wise of a worn-out lantern. 
 
 Having nothing else to occupy my time, 
 I turned my attention to my racing stable, 
 the training of horses being a special hobby 
 of mine. I bought a Waler mare, Duchess, 
 and an Arab, Silver Mane, and they proved 
 remarkably successful. 
 
 In 1 871 we took a trip home, and spent 
 a great part of the time in the south of 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 Ireland, where we made a long stay at St. 
 Anne's Hill, Blarney, which belonged to 
 a Mr. Barter, who was the nephew of my 
 dear old Colonel, Dick Barter, of the 15th 
 Loodiana Sikhs. 
 
 While we were staying there a very 
 curious incident happened. On my return 
 one afternoon from fishing, I strolled into 
 the billiard-room and found a friend, who 
 suggested a rubber of whist. To this I 
 agreed, and otfered to fetch the cards. 
 Then I went up to our sitting-room, and 
 on opening the door I was surprised to 
 find a party of four sitting round the table 
 engaged in table-turning. 
 
 The party consisted of my wife, a Mrs. 
 
 Glover, Colonel B , then on leave from 
 
 Malta, and a young man who was a cripple 
 and at Blarney for the sake of his health. I 
 think this young man was the medium. 
 
 As I entered, the Colonel said, " There is 
 a strong spirit wanting to speak to someone 
 in the room." His remark struck me rather 
 forcibly, and I said at once, " May I join 
 you ? " I had never been at a seance at any 
 time in my life, but when they had all 
 agreed to let me join them, I sat down 
 between the Colonel and Mrs. Glover, 
 the former of whom was inclined to take 
 command of us all. 
 176 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 I said that I should Hke to ask the name 
 of this spirit, and the table, which was a 
 square one, answered by markedly dipping 
 down to one corner. As each letter was 
 called out by the Colonel, the answer came : 
 " Bannatyne Mac." " That will do," I said, 
 for the Colonel's first remark about a strong 
 spirit had put the idea into my mind that it 
 might be Bannatyne. 
 
 As I have mentioned before, Bannatyne 
 Macleod and I were the closest of friends. 
 Our friendship was ideal, and he had always 
 declared that he would communicate with 
 me after death if it was in his power to 
 do so. 
 
 I then said, " I should like to ask a 
 question of this spirit." " Tell it me," the 
 Colonel replied, " and I will ask it." " Oh 
 no," I said ; " if this is a spirit I need not 
 mention my question to anyone, but shall 
 ask it in my own mind." Then I asked, 
 " What have you to tell me, Bannatyne ? " 
 The answer came : " How I love J-a-m-" 
 At this point the Colonel became rather 
 bored, and said, " This is quite common- 
 place ; let us go on to something more 
 interesting." But I begged him to be 
 patient, for I was particularly anxious to 
 hear more. Only my wife and I knew any- 
 thing about Bannatyne Macleod, but the 
 
 M 177 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 others knew that my name was James, so 
 I wanted the next letter very badly. 
 
 If some one was humbugging, it would 
 evidently be an "e"; but if it really was 
 Bannatyne, an " i " would certainly come ; 
 for, being a Highlander, he always called 
 me "Jamie." 
 
 An " i " came, to the surprise of the 
 Colonel, but both he and the others seemed 
 to find the proceedings rather dull ; when, 
 however, I had assured them that it was 
 anything but dull to me, and that I was 
 satisfied that it really was a message to me 
 from an old friend from another world, they 
 all agreed to continue. 
 
 Then I asked in my own mind, " Is it as 
 you and I thought, or is revealed religion 
 necessary to us ? " This was to me the 
 most important of all questions, and I 
 awaited the answer with great anxiety. It 
 came out, letter by letter : " Trust to virtue"; 
 and not until the sentence was completed did 
 I find anything at all in it, and then it 
 suddenly flashed on me that this was the 
 most complete answer possible. And indeed 
 it is. 
 
 Often have I tried to find a more satis- 
 factory and valuable answer, but I have 
 never succeeded. I have had no more com- 
 munications from the other world, nor do 
 178 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 I require them, for I am absolutely cer- 
 tain that our life is a continuous one, and 
 that only our bodies die. 
 
 The autumn of '71 found us back at 
 Meerut and still out of employ ; and in the 
 following April we were able to go to Simla, 
 the immense labours of doing general duty 
 not standing in the way ! 
 
 Lord Mayo was now the ^^iceroy, and 
 we had made his acquaintance in 1870, and 
 he was now our good friend. In that year 
 I drew the favourite, McGregor, in the 
 Calcutta Derby Lottery, the first prize 
 being ^10,000. Up to that time he was 
 the hottest favourite for the Derby ever 
 known, odds of five to two being laid upon 
 him. Lord Mavo had been verv interested 
 about this, and at the earliest dawn of the 
 morning after the race, two red-coated 
 chuprassies in succession, one from the 
 Civil Secretary and one from the Military, 
 were at our door with the baneful news that 
 McGregor was fourth and Kingcraft first. 
 Kingcraft was a bad horse, but McGregor 
 had been run on the hard ground at Bath 
 three weeks before, and could not act. The 
 lottery was won by a little milliner, and I 
 am sure that I did not grudge it her. I had 
 hedged a trifie and managed to win about 
 iSoo rupees, 
 
 179 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 Lord Mayo now offered me, as had Lord 
 Lawrence, any appointment in his gift, but, 
 as had always happened, I was unable to 
 take advantage of this kindness. My wife 
 was persona grata at Government House, 
 and was always getting up theatricals and 
 concerts. In consequence Lord Mayo was 
 very grateful, and could not do enough 
 for us. But all this time the Commander- 
 in-Chief was as obdurate as ever, and the 
 reason why I was always treated in this way 
 was not discovered by me until 1874. And 
 I shall mention it when I come to the events 
 of that year. In '72 I got another acting 
 second in commandship in a native regi- 
 ment, and curiously enough it was again 
 in Moradabad. Major Armstrong com- 
 manded the regiment, and to my surprise I 
 found myself in command of the station. 
 Most officers find this a very trying position, 
 but we got on very well, and when we were 
 inspected by General Sir William Olpherts, 
 he complimented us upon our amiability. 
 
 180 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 The same old errand : I have my eyes opened : Inter- 
 view with Lord Napier : Am offered a command : 
 Lord Napier's experience of the Gwalas : We go to 
 Delhi : A parade : I explain my views to my officers 
 
 EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND 
 SEVENTY-FOUR saw us again 
 in Simla, on the same old errand of 
 seeking a command in the Native 
 Army from the Chief. There was now a 
 new man at the head of the Army, Lord 
 Napier of Magdala. He had been, among 
 many other campaigns, in the China cam- 
 paign of i860 and had commanded the 
 Second Division ; andl had hopes of him, 
 although I had not been in his division. 
 
 To my astonishment I saw in the Gazette 
 one day that a man, junior to me, had been 
 given a command of a native regiment. No 
 sooner had I read this than I went straight- 
 way to Sir Martin Dillon, the Military 
 Secretary, and asked him the meaning of it. 
 I said, " You have put in a man junior to 
 me, with a record of no particular account, 
 and you have passed me over." 
 
 " You," he answered, " why, you are a 
 gambler. There are two black crosses in 
 the Adjutant-General's book against you as a 
 gambler." 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 This indeed was a revelation, and I knew 
 at last why the various Commanders-in- 
 Chief had passed me over. But I did not 
 intend to listen to this without a strong 
 protest. " Oh," I said, " this is the system 
 of Confidential Reports, the meanest system 
 ever known. By it a man is stabbed in the 
 back, and never has a chance to know 
 anything about the accusation brought 
 against him. I am really obliged to you for 
 letting me know. As it happens I can trace 
 this and can show how little truth there is 
 in it. To think that this has been going on 
 for years, and that I never had the slightest 
 idea of it ! I want an interview with the 
 Chief as soon as possible." 
 
 " You shall have one to-morrow," he 
 replied, " and I will let you know the time." 
 
 " I should like to say, Colonel," I re- 
 marked as I went away, " that there are two 
 meanings to the word ' gambler.' First, a 
 man who cheats at cards ; secondly, a man 
 who plays for money. Which am I ? " 
 
 Colonel Dillon was a really good man, and 
 I feel sure that he saw the injustice of this 
 Confidential Report business as well as I did, 
 but he did not mean to commit himself. On 
 the afternoon of the following day I had a 
 private interview with Lord Napier, and 
 made my statement in the following words : 
 182 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 " I learn from Colonel Dillon that there are 
 two black, marks against me in the Adjutant- 
 General's book for gambling. I want first of 
 all to say that I have been very fond of cards 
 ever since I was seventeen years of age. I 
 have never played for more than I can pay. 
 I have made more friends at the card table 
 than in any other walk of life. No man can 
 say a word in any way against me for 
 playing, no man has ever attempted to do 
 so. I feel sure that I know all about these 
 two crosses. They were put in the book by 
 a man in the Adjutant-General's office. I 
 will mention his name to you if you wish. 
 I was never under his command. He knew 
 nothing about me, but twice in the Simla 
 Club he heard me say aloud, ' I will bet five 
 gold mohurs.' On these slight grounds 
 these crosses were made. The man has 
 retired now, and all these years I have 
 known nothing about this. Had I known 
 I would have taxed him with it, and he 
 would not have been a member of the Simla 
 Club for long. And I maintain, sir, that a 
 man so fond of risk as I have always been, 
 both in purse and person, is much more 
 valuable as a soldier than a man whose chief 
 merit may be that he has never touched a 
 card. Yet, sir, I find myself passed over for 
 
 a command by " 
 
 183 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Lord Napier listened to this statement, 
 which amounted almost to a harangue, with 
 the greatest patience, and at the end of it he 
 said that I had put " quite another view 
 upon the matter." 
 
 Then I told him — what I had told Colonel 
 Dillon — that there were two meanings to the 
 word " gambler," and he replied that he quite 
 understood, and then added, " There is only 
 one regiment vacant now, and that is the 
 :?3rd Native Infantry. I have much pleasure 
 in offering it to you." 
 
 I thanked him sincerely, but he inter- 
 rupted my flow of gratitude. " Don't thank 
 me," he said ; " it is the worst regiment in 
 the service. So bad is it, and so badly has it 
 been reported upon for the last eleven years, 
 that the Government are seriously thinking of 
 disbanding it and raising another in its place." 
 
 " Well, sir," I returned, " I am never- 
 theless most sincerely grateful. It is what I 
 want and believe myself to be fit for. I 
 know the regiment. Colonel Gowan com- 
 mands it, and a better fellow could not be 
 found anywhere." 
 
 " The regiment is on the line of march 
 now, and will be at Delhi on January i. You 
 will meet it there and take command, as 
 Colonel Gowan is going home." 
 
 Once more I returned thanks, for this was 
 184 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 what I had been wanting for years. 1 had 
 never commanded a regiment for more than 
 a few days, and the prospect of taking this 
 command gave me the very greatest pleasure. 
 
 " Some years ago I officiated as second 
 in command of this regiment for eighteen 
 months," I told Lord Napier, " and if you 
 will allow me I should like to alter the 
 composition of it." 
 
 " No," he replied, " that is Imperial 
 business. I cannot do that myself. But 
 why do you want to change it ? " 
 
 " Because, sir, there are three companies 
 of Gwalas (cowherds) in it." 
 
 " What have you to say against them ? " 
 
 " I don't think that they can stand the 
 racket of war," I replied. 
 
 "You mean," Lord Napier replied, " that 
 they are not brave. I will tell you a story. 
 When I was a young man I was very fond 
 of tiger-shooting on foot, and I was out one 
 day in the Bombay Presidency with a native, 
 who was one of your despised Gwalas. It 
 was more or less an open grass jungle, and 
 the man came to me and said, ' Sahib, a 
 tiger has just gone into that piece of grass,' 
 which was only about two acres in extent. 
 So I told him that we would beat through 
 it. We walked right through it, but found 
 no tiger, and I, being a young man, called 
 
 185 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 the native a fool. ' Come back with me, 
 Sahib,' he said, ' and I will show you the 
 tiger,' and to please him I went. He walked 
 up to a clump of grass, and hitting that 
 tiger over the back with his stick, he said, 
 ' Come out of that ; don't you know the Sahib 
 is looking for you ? ' Well, I shot the tiger. 
 You cannot call a man like that a coward, 
 and my opinion is that the Gwalas are about 
 as brave a race of men as I know." 
 
 I had no reply ready at that time, but 
 I have since found out the truth of the 
 matter. The Gwalas as a race are well 
 acquainted with tigers from their earliest 
 youth, when as little boys they go out with 
 the herds. They know that the tiger is not 
 in the least interested in them, but that if 
 he wants anything his choice will fall upon 
 a fat cow. The boy, even if he is only four 
 or five years old, will go and take up his 
 place behind the big bull of the herd and is 
 never hurt. But when there is a man-eating 
 tiger about, an old chap with bad teeth who 
 cannot manage a big cow, there is nobody 
 more afraid than a Gwala. Shortly after- 
 wards the battle of Maiwand showed that 
 my opinion of the Gwalas was not in- 
 correct. 
 
 The result, then, of my visit to Lord 
 Napier was that we packed up all our goods 
 i86 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 and chattels at Moradabad, and went to 
 Delhi to meet the regiment on January i. 
 Govvan was going home to England imme- 
 diately, and I insisted upon the regiment 
 giving him a dinner. This farewell festivity 
 did not seem to have been suggested by any 
 one, although Gowan was such an exceed- 
 ingly good sort. 
 
 He did not leave until the morning of the 
 3rd, and I would not assume power until he 
 left. Then I ordered a parade. I never 
 saw anything in my life like this exhibition ; 
 it was so utterly bad that I could not stand 
 it for more than a few minutes, and at the 
 end of that time I sounded the " Halt " and 
 " Officers fall out," and they all came up 
 and saluted. 
 
 " Gentlemen," I said to them, " the Chief 
 told me that this regiment was in a bad 
 state. It is in such a frightful state that 
 I have never seen anything to approach it. 
 It is so bad that I shall not have another 
 parade for six weeks." 
 
 Then the Adjutant sidled up to me and 
 whispered, " But, sir, if we are so bad, how 
 shall we get any better if you do not have 
 parades ? " 
 
 " Make your mind easy," I said, " you 
 cannot possibly be worse." I dismissed the 
 regiment, and all the officers went to the 
 
 187 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 mess, where a sort of official meeting was 
 held. Each officer came up to me, in his 
 turn, and the Adjutant was the first to come. 
 " Sir," he said, " here are the books of the 
 Adjutant's office. Will you take them over .? 
 Colonel Gowan always looked after them." 
 
 Then the Quartermaster came up. " Here 
 are the books of the Quartermaster's office," 
 he said ; " Colonel Gowan kept them, and I 
 hope you will do the same. I think they 
 are correct up to date." 
 
 After this the band accounts were pro- 
 duced, and I was begged to follow Colonel 
 Gowan's example and take them. Then 
 another officer brought forward the mess 
 books, and assured me that Colonel Gowan 
 had always presided over the mess, and that 
 he hoped I would do the same. 
 
 I waited until they had all done, and then 
 I addressed them. " Gentlemen, you are all 
 very much mistaken in me," I began, "for I 
 am a very lazy man. You seem to think 
 that I have come here to do all the work of 
 the regiment, but nothing is further from my 
 intention. I am not going to do the work ; 
 I have come here to see you do it. There 
 is a very good racquet-court here, I am 
 glad to say, and I am very fond of racquets, 
 and hope very often to play with you. You, 
 
 Captain S ," I continued, "will be 
 
 i88 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 Adjutant. I really meant that I do not intend 
 to have a parade for six weeks, so that your 
 duties for the present will not be arduous. 
 I shall be able later on to explain my views 
 
 to you. You, Lieutenant B , will be 
 
 Quartermaster, and I shall have something 
 to say about the dress of the regiment, which 
 I think, wants some alteration. I mean to 
 put the men into gaiters, for at present, with 
 their ammunition-boots, their legs look like 
 
 mop-sticks in buckets. You, Major R , 
 
 will be president of the band. It seems to 
 be very good, but I am not qualified to take 
 charge of a band. I hope you are. You, 
 
 Captain M , will, I am sure, have great 
 
 pleasure in taking charge of the mess. I 
 am very pleased to hear that you are a first- 
 class French chef, for I am very fond of a 
 good dinner." 
 
 The reasons, to my mind, for the regiment 
 having fallen into this state were, firstly, that 
 Colonel Gowan liked to do everything him- 
 self, and consequently he never gave any 
 officer a chance of responsibility, but he 
 would give all the officers as much leave as 
 they wanted. Secondly — and I had seen this 
 before in many other regiments, notably in 
 the one in which I had acted as second in 
 cormnand at Barrackpore — the men had 
 beeiT-drilled and drilled and drilled, and the 
 
 189 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 punishment for not doing well had been 
 more drill. I knew something about the 
 fighting classes of India, and was well aware 
 that they are keen upon drill. But, of 
 course, if you are everlastingly drilling, any 
 race in the world will get sick and tired 
 of it. 
 
 Well, my officers at first did not believe 
 in me. They thought this idea of no drill 
 was absolutely fatal, and also, naturally, they 
 were all more or less disappointed in losing 
 a step ; for I was an outsider, and, in con- 
 sequence, there was no promotion. And, 
 as regards the men, those who knew me 
 possibly liked me more or less ; but, com- 
 pared with Colonel Gowan, who had been 
 the friend of natives all his life, and who had 
 obtained land and honours for those who 
 had helped him during the Mutiny, I could 
 not expect to stand high. 
 
 At the end of six weeks I had a parade, 
 but it was quite unlike anything they had 
 ever seen before, for there was no left-wheel 
 into line or forming column. The moment 
 they came on parade I took them in hand 
 without going through any formula, and 
 gave them five minutes of manoeuvres at the 
 double ; and they were back in their lines 
 before they knew where they were. 
 
 We were within the walls of a large and 
 190 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 more or less fanatical city. Disturbances 
 with the inhabitants were expected, and 
 before I had held the command for a fort- 
 night we had a small one. Then I had a 
 talk with the native officers, and] plainly 
 spoke my mind to them. I suppose that 
 this had some effect, for we never had 
 another disturbance of any sort or kind ; 
 and during the five years of my command I 
 never had more than one court-martial a 
 year, which must, I should think, be nearly 
 a record. 
 
 191 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Improvement of the regiment : An inspection : Praise 
 and explanations : A good dinner : Snakes : Sham fights : 
 The Prince of Wales's visit A new game of tennis : 
 Ulwar : A magnificent picnic 
 
 WE were, so we heard, to be 
 inspected, in the second week, 
 of April of this year, by General 
 Sir William Payn, who was 
 commanding the division. As time went 
 on I had longer and longer parades, and 
 I found that the men were coming to hand 
 very well, and that both officers and men 
 were much pleased by the alteration of 
 the hours of parades. Previously it had 
 always been the custom to have parade at 
 phenomenally early hours. This I found 
 was detested by both officers and men alike, 
 and as to feeling the effects of the sun I 
 discovered that everybody was quite willing 
 to parade at 9 or 10 a.m., instead of 4 in 
 the early morning. The men especially 
 liked this alteration. 
 
 When April came my officers were very 
 uneasy about the few parades which I had 
 held, and the Adjutant came and begged 
 me to have a few parades in the afternoon 
 as the bayonet exercise was not smartly 
 done. " My good fellow," I said, " I am 
 192 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 not going to have a single extra parade for 
 any general that was ever born. You and I 
 know^ more about this regiment than any- 
 body else does. Do you imagine that I can't 
 put this through ? " 
 
 The much dreaded General came, and 
 gave us two good hours of first-class drill. 
 Then he sounded " Officers fall out," and 
 we all went up and saluted. 
 
 " Harris," he said to me, " do you know 
 what I am going to say of your regiment ? " 
 
 " No, sir," I replied, " but I hope it is 
 nothing very bad." 
 
 " I am going to say that it is the best 
 regiment in my division. There is not 
 a regiment in the division, European or 
 native, that drills like it. Now," he con- 
 tinued, " everyone knows the record of 
 this regiment. For the last eleven years 
 I know that it has been reported upon 
 as the worst in the service, and now I 
 find it the best. What is the meaning 
 of it .? " 
 
 " I do not want to tell you, sir," was my 
 reply. 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Because, sir, I have broken most of the 
 regulations of the service, and I do not want 
 to get into trouble." 
 
 " Trouble ! " he exclaimed, " there will 
 N 193 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 be no trouble when I see a regiment drilled 
 like this." 
 
 " Then," I said, " if you will keep me 
 clear of anything of the sort, I shall be glad 
 to tell you. I have heard, sir, that in your 
 younger days you had a racing stable. I have 
 also had one for the last fifteen years. You 
 know, sir, that if you gallop a horse for two 
 miles every day on the same course and at 
 the same pace, you ultimately make him so 
 slow that you can kick your hat along as 
 fast as he can gallop." 
 
 " Oh," he said, " you mean that the men 
 were stale." 
 
 " Stale and more than stale. I never saw 
 anything like it for staleness, and I guessed 
 it must be that. All these races that enlist 
 are really fond of drill, but they had been 
 given too much of it." 
 
 " What are the regimental institutions 
 like ? " 
 
 " They are, I think, very good. Colonel 
 Gowan left them," I added, " in excellent 
 order, and they are at least as good now as 
 when I took them over, and the mess is 
 first-rate. You are coming to dine with us 
 to-night, sir, and you are going to have 
 the best dinner you have seen in India." 
 
 " Then it is too expensive for the young 
 hands," he told me. 
 194 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 " What do you think, sir, that an officer's 
 messing should come to a day ? " 
 
 " I should not object if it was four 
 rupees." 
 
 " We do it for 2 rupees 8 annas. You 
 dined, sir, with the regiment in the Fort last 
 night. They are all very good fellows, but 
 I am glad to see that you have survived 
 their dinner ! " 
 
 Then he laughed and said, " Yes, I sur- 
 vived it all right. There must be something 
 behind all this, something more than I have 
 been told, for you to have got the regiment 
 into this state." 
 
 "The fact is," I replied, "that Colonel 
 Gowan always liked to do everything him- 
 self. He did not give any of his officers 
 any responsibility at all, but I have been 
 going on quite diffisrent lines. Each officer 
 does his own work in this regiment. I have 
 nothing to do but to see that the work is 
 done. It is the easiest thing in the world, 
 and I find that it is appreciated by every- 
 one. The whole of my work is done in 
 under ten minutes with a bit of paper and 
 a pencil." 
 
 We had a very nice messhouse on the 
 walls, overlooking the Jumna, and our fine 
 old tables of Bombay blackwood were so 
 beautifully polished that we merely put two 
 
 195 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 slips over them. The General sat on my 
 right at dinner, and before we had got half 
 through the meal he said, " Harris, you are 
 right. I have never seen a dinner like it in 
 India. But I don't understand it." 
 
 " Well, sir," I replied, " that man. Major 
 
 M , sitting at the end of the table, is the 
 
 best French cook in India. He is a student 
 of cookery, and he does not mind taking any 
 amount of trouble. He will sit, as I am 
 sure he has been doing this very afternoon, 
 in an armchair on the verandah, drinking 
 shandy-gafF, with five different natives cook- 
 ing separate dishes. Then my wife is also a 
 most excellent English cook. We entertain 
 a good deal, and we have established a kind 
 of friendly rivalry between the two styles. 
 Nearly everyone in this station wants to be 
 an honorary member of our mess, and as we 
 sit down thirty-two to dinner every night it 
 is easy to be more or less economical. The 
 only extras we have to-night are the pom- 
 fret, and the oysters from Bombay." 
 
 For the first time in twelve years the 
 regiment was reported upon in terms of the 
 highest praise, and next year another General 
 Officer reported in the same manner. But 
 in the third year of my command the 
 authorities at Simla, having, I think, heard 
 of our good dinners, sent a special man to 
 196 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 inspect, who evidently had orders not to 
 accept our hospitality, for he would not 
 dine nor lunch, nor even have a glass of 
 sherry in our mess, and he lived at the dak 
 bungalow. He had been given to under- 
 stand that Colonel Harris (for by this time I 
 was Colonel) had a way of humbugging 
 Generals by the quality of his entertain- 
 ments. 
 
 We had some changes in the regiment, for 
 the Adjutant died suddenly of aneurism, and 
 
 B took his place. To my mind he was 
 
 not exactly fitted for the post. He was a 
 born naturalist, and knew more about snakes 
 than anyone I have ever met. 
 
 One morning two of my officers came to 
 see me, and said, " I wish, sir, you would 
 
 speak to B . He, as you know, lives 
 
 quite close to the messhouse, and yesterday 
 there was a large snake crawling across the 
 messroom, and to-day there was another. 
 He has got about forty living snakes under 
 his bed. You know, sir, he is rather careless, 
 and we don't altogether like it." 
 
 "All right ; send B to me," I told 
 
 them, and when he had come I asked him 
 to explain the fact that snakes were crawling 
 around the messroom. 
 
 " They are quite harmless, sir," he assured 
 me. " I have got over forty of them in my 
 
 197 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 room, and yesterday I caught the finest black 
 cobra I have seen." 
 
 " How do you catch them ? " I asked. 
 
 " In my hand, sir. You know all those 
 aloe hedges close by the musketry range ; 
 they are full of snakes. I am constantly on 
 the range and in uniform, and in these tall 
 boots no snake can hurt me. When I see a 
 snake I go over and try to get my foot right 
 across it, so that it goes in the hollow 
 between the heel and the ball of my foot. 
 But directly it turns to bite me it bites my 
 boot, and I catch it round the neck with my 
 left hand. With my pocket-handkerchief in 
 my right hand I make him open his mouth. 
 Then I make a little snood, and put it over 
 first one fang and then the other, and pull 
 out both of them. After that they are 
 perfectly harmless." 
 
 " I will come and see your snakes," I told 
 him, and when we had reached his bun- 
 galow, I found, sure enough, that under his 
 bed and, indeed, all about the room were 
 little earthenware pots with a loose saucer top. 
 
 " Now, sir," he said, " I will show you 
 the finest black cobra de capello you probably 
 have ever seen." 
 
 He took off the saucer of one of these 
 pots and then tapped the side, and up sprang 
 a snake. He caught it round the neck 
 198 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 with his left hand and said, " Now, sir, I 
 will show you how I take out the fangs of 
 snakes." 
 
 Having produced his little snood, he 
 opened the mouth of the snake with his 
 left hand and pulled out the fang and also 
 about three drops of a fine amber fluid, 
 which was more than enough to kill every 
 officer in my regiment. 
 
 " I knew you were always a careless 
 chap," I told him, " but now I know that 
 you have been risking the lives of all your 
 brother officers. All these snakes must go. 
 You may keep snakes bottled in spirits, 
 but if you want to keep live snakes, you 
 will keep them out of cantonments. I will 
 not have a single one of them in canton- 
 ments. And I really think," I continued, 
 " that you are more fitted for the Forest 
 Department than for an adjutancy of any 
 regiment. I believe I can help you in that 
 way, and, if you like, I will write a letter to 
 the head of that department, who is a per- 
 sonal friend of mine, and suggest that you 
 would be a very valuable man for him. 
 Will that suit you ? " 
 
 " I should like nothing better," he in- 
 formed me, and within two months it was 
 all arranged. He went to the Forest De- 
 partment, where he remained during the 
 
 199 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 remainder of his service in India, and became 
 more or less famous as an entomologist. 
 James Graves Kelly (who had become 
 Quartermaster when Stekelin died) now 
 became Adjutant, and I could not have had 
 a better man. Kelly was the man who 
 afterwards relieved Chitral and became 
 A.D.C. to the Queen. 
 
 Delhi was a very stirring place in the 
 years following 1875. The great camp of 
 exercise, the visit of the Prince of Wales, 
 and the first Imperial Durbar all came off 
 while we were in Delhi. 
 
 The first of these consisted of a series of 
 sham fights on an enormous scale. The 
 different forces started, as a rule, about forty 
 miles apart, and generally they represented 
 a large force endeavouring to enter Delhi, 
 and a much smaller force defending the 
 approaches to it. 
 
 It was a very great advantage to me to 
 have an intimate knowledge of the country. 
 This knowledge I had picked up while pig- 
 sticking with the Delhi Tent Club, of which I 
 was President, and my experiences during the 
 Mutiny were also of some value. I remem- 
 ber on one occasion, when I was commanding 
 the smaller force retreating on Delhi, that I 
 led the "enemy" into such an ambuscade 
 that the General, coming up at the moment 
 200 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 with two umpires, sounded the " Cease fire," 
 and said, " Gentlemen, you can all go home ; 
 Harris hvs killed the lot of you." 
 
 The visit of the Prince of Wales does not 
 recall to my mind anything particularly 
 remarkable, excepting that it was a series of 
 very fine reviews. On the other hand, the 
 Imperial assemblage in the following year 
 was a sight that I can never forget. I do 
 not believe that even the last Durbar can 
 have surpassed it, for I think that the 
 absence of elephants must have deprived it 
 of some of its attractiveness. 
 
 On the second day the Rajah and poten- 
 tates of all sorts, with their respective body- 
 guards, passed in review before Lord Lytton. 
 Some of these were most amusing, and all 
 of them were interesting. The Ranee of 
 Tanjore's elephants were quite a feature, as 
 they were all painted sky-blue, with pink 
 faces and magnificent gold howdahs. 
 
 Cashmere had a bodyguard of some 
 50 cavalry, wearing the enormous brass 
 helmets of Cuirassiers of the Guard in 
 Napoleon's time. But the most amusing 
 of all, in my opinion, was the Rajah of 
 Jheend's bodyguard. He had taken a great 
 fancy to our Highlanders, and he had dressed 
 his bodyguard to imitate them. They wore 
 kilts, and he had their brown legs painted 
 
 201 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 pink. The escorts of the various Raj- 
 putana chiefs were, perhaps, the most beauti- 
 fully got up. 
 
 In the last Durbar there does not seem to 
 have been any similar march past. 
 
 During all this time we were living in 
 our comfortable house on the walls of Delhi, 
 and I had spent some of my leisure hours 
 inventing a new game of tennis within walls, 
 and had built a court in my own compound. 
 This game I considered to be most attractive, 
 and the most remarkable thing about it was 
 that the better you played the longer was the 
 rally. This was the more surprising as the 
 net was only two feet six inches high. 
 
 It was my object to get the best racquet 
 and tennis players in India to stay with me, 
 and in this I was very successful. To give 
 an idea of the length of the rally, I was 
 sitting outside the court one day, and it 
 struck me that the marker had called 
 " Played " a great number of times. So 
 I began to count, and after this I counted 
 " Played " 71 times. Now, the men playing 
 were two really good men of the Artillery, 
 who had both played in their regimental 
 matches against the Engineers. 
 
 Twenty-two courts that I know of were 
 built on the lines of mine by various messes 
 or clubs. But most, if not all, of these 
 202 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 did not succeed ; some failed because the 
 players did not get the balls, the racquets, 
 and the floor to fit ; and others failed because 
 people considered that they could improve 
 upon the original design. The 15th Hussars 
 built a more expensive court, with higher 
 walls, and the corners closed in all round. 
 But you can never possibly take a tennis ball 
 out of a closed corner. The ends of the 
 sides of my court were open ; to close them in 
 meant the complete destruction of the game. 
 
 Thousands of games of tennis were played 
 in this court of mine, and by the best players 
 in India ; and, though many prejudices had 
 to be overcome, I do not remember anyone 
 who did not own that it was a really good 
 game. Any unbiased lover of games must 
 admit that a game between two very skilful 
 lawn-tennis players in which there were 
 constantly rallies of a hundred must be good. 
 Look at lawn tennis of the present day. To 
 my mind it is more or less spoilt as a game 
 by the extraordinary skill of the players. 
 And racquets seem to me to be in much the 
 same case. I am thinking not only of those 
 who look on at games, but also of those who 
 play them. 
 
 I would here mention that the racquets 
 which we used were rough-strung, and the 
 balls covered with wash-leather. 
 
 203 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 I have before mentioned that India is the 
 place of all places for picnics. In England 
 the majority of people, when they are asked 
 to a picnic, begin to search for an excuse or 
 a previous engagement, but in India a picnic 
 is a thing to go to. During the cold weather 
 I received a letter from an old friend, Tommy 
 Cadell, who had been subaltern a little junior 
 to me in the old 2nd European Bengal 
 Fusiliers ; he was with me in the attack the 
 enemy made on us at the Flagstaff picket 
 on June 12, 1857, for his share in which I 
 recommended him for the V.C., which 
 he got. 
 
 This letter was written from Ulwar, a 
 native State some 70 or 80 miles south from 
 Delhi. And it appeared that Tommy was 
 resident at the court of Ulwar, and that 
 Ulwar had just come or was just coming 
 of age, and in consequence proposed to give 
 the European Sahibs a great picnic. 
 
 Invitations were enclosed to the effect 
 that His Highness requested the pleasure of 
 my wife's and my company, with as many 
 of my friends as I liked to bring to the 
 picnic at Ulwar. The date was early in 
 January, and we were asked to stay for three 
 days. Special trains each way, and every 
 other imaginable convenience, were to be 
 provided. 
 204 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 The line to Ulwar was a narrow gauge, 
 and had not long been opened. Having 
 got leave from the officer commanding the 
 station for the officers and myself, we left 
 Delhi just before midnight by the special 
 train. We were a party of nine — my wife, 
 a young niece out from England, myself, and 
 six of my fellows ; various other members of 
 the community made up the train party to 
 between thirty and forty. There was also a 
 contingent from Agra and other stations, but 
 they went by other routes. I think that 
 altogether there were nearly ninety guests. 
 
 Having arrived at Ulwar at 8 a.m. on the 
 following morning, we were met at the rail- 
 way station by the Rajah's Vakeel (Prime 
 Minister). Notebook in hand and bowing 
 profoundly, he addressed me, " You are 
 Colonel Harris, I think } " and I replied 
 with a bow. " How many is your party ? " 
 and I told him that there were nine 
 of us. Then having, as it were, entered 
 us in his notebook, he said, " I propose to 
 give you one four-in-hand, three landaus, 
 three dog-carts or buggies, and as many 
 riding horses as you please. Will that do.?" 
 I responded that I thought it would " do " 
 splendidly. " They are in waiting here," 
 he continued, " but if you would prefer 
 elephants they are here also." Whereupon 
 
 205 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 I said, " There is only one thing. I have 
 been teaching my niece to ride, and I should 
 like to choose her horse." " Certainly, 
 certainly," he said, " you choose any you 
 like ; we have 500 in the stables." 
 
 This word " stables " causes me furiously 
 to think. I went to inspect these stables 
 during the afternoon, so that I might choose 
 a really good horse for my niece. And there 
 I found a management which might well 
 make many Englishmen blush, even at the 
 present day. Each horse was secured by 
 head ropes and one heel rope, and he stood 
 on his own platform of nine or ten inches 
 of dry earth. At the end of each row of 
 stables was a platform of tiles, with flues 
 under it. On this any earth that had 
 become damp was thrown and spread about 
 so that it might dry. Two or three boys 
 were employed in every line of stables. 
 Every particle of wet earth was at once 
 removed, and either thrown on to the flue 
 or carried away. 
 
 Contrast this with our own stables, fre- 
 quently of cobble-stones, the best of them of 
 enamelled tiles, with straw on the top and 
 smelling strongly of ammonia. In these 
 stables there was no smell whatever. There 
 each horse pawed his mattress until he got 
 it to suit him, and then he lay on what was 
 206 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 — to him — practically a feather bed. Even 
 in our best racing stables a horse but rarely 
 lies down, for straw on the top of either 
 enamelled tile or cobble-stones is not com- 
 fortable enough to induce him to do so. 
 The result of this system of Ulwar's was 
 that nearly every horse was lying down. I 
 have been a horse master for many years, and 
 I have been over many of the best stables in 
 England, and also over many tramway and 
 omnibus stables, and in these last I have seen 
 a vast amount of unintentional cruelty to 
 horses. I think that Ulwar's stables were a 
 pattern to the world. 
 
 It was, perhaps, a mile from the station to 
 our camp, which was in a semicircle on 
 good turf, round a large projecting bow- 
 windowed hall of the palace. In this we all 
 had our meals to the sound of bugles. The 
 tents were very large and comfortable, the 
 meals were magnificent, and, if you wished, 
 you could swim in champagne from break- 
 fast until dinner. 
 
 On the afternoon of the first day those 
 who felt inclined rode out to see the Rajah's 
 cheetahs hunt the antelopes of the country. 
 These cheetahs were on the ordinary agri- 
 cultural carts of the country. The antelopes 
 fed in herds among the growing crops. 
 When the carts got within a hundred yards 
 
 207 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 of a herd the spectacles, made of hide, were 
 taken off one of the cheetahs, and he stood 
 quite free upon the cart. If he thought that 
 he was within five springs he immediately 
 dashed for the herd, and if he could pounce 
 on an antelope in these five springs he got 
 it ; if he failed he sulked and was trouble- 
 some. But as a rule he seemed to be able to 
 secure his prey. There was also pig-sticking 
 for some of us, and in the evening an ex- 
 cellent dinner, a capital hall for dancing, and 
 a splendid band. 
 
 On the next day the great hunt took place. 
 My niece had tried the horse which I had 
 chosen for her, and was quite pleased with 
 it ; but I chose an elephant for my mount, 
 and was accompanied by a friend, a judge 
 from Agra. 
 
 The hunt was a drag, and a considerable 
 field of nearly thirty mounted men started. 
 Through Ulwar, right across the whole of 
 India to the east coast, somewhere in 
 Orissa, runs the great Customs Hedge. 
 This hedge is necessary because of the duties 
 on salt, which is a Government monopoly in 
 India. It is constantly patrolled, and has 
 gates wherever a road goes through it. It 
 is made entirely of sprays of thorns, and is 
 from eight to ten feet high and very broad. 
 After about half an hour's galloping the 
 208 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 field came to this hedge, and most of them 
 charged it, my niece and all my young 
 fellows being among the number. My niece 
 got well over, but all the rest of them got 
 into the thorns. I, on the elephant, was on 
 the flank with my friend from Agra, and we 
 enjoyed this incident very much ; for if it 
 was rather painful to take part in, it was 
 certainly most amusing to watch. 
 
 Most of the third day was devoted to 
 shooting alligators, which abounded in a 
 large lake close to us. There was an island 
 in this lake, and there seemed to be about 
 a dozen alligators upon it at all times of 
 the day. 
 
 The country swarmed with peacocks, but 
 with them, of course, we did not interfere, 
 for in a Hindoo State they are sacred. Many 
 of us, however, got good bags of partridges 
 and small game. An exhibition of fire- 
 works took place every night, and this was 
 seen to the greatest advantage, as most of the 
 Palace was built round an enormous tank. 
 The Rajah always favoured us with his 
 company at dinner, and, altogether, his 
 hospitality was as lavish as it is memorable. 
 
 209 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Native history : Exploration : Buried treasure : A 
 company is formed : Difficulties with the directors : 
 Farewell 
 
 DELHI was always a most interest- 
 ing place to me, and I have always 
 felt the charm of native history. 
 My first station with my old regi- 
 ment had been Agra, and there I had lived 
 for two years with Bannatyne Macleod, who 
 had native history at his fingers' ends. 
 
 I had read much of the Great Moguls : of 
 Shah Jehan, who built the Taj ; of Akbar 
 the Great, who lies buried at Secundra, only 
 five miles from the Taj. Futtehpore Sikri, 
 Deig, Bhurtpore, I knew, though these were 
 only side interests ; and here was I, stationed 
 for years in Delhi, the home of this ruling 
 race. 
 
 I made a practice of exploring the seven 
 ruined cities of Old Delhi. Every Sunday 
 throughout the cold weather we (that is, 
 most of my officers and myself, with anyone 
 else who liked to join us) started off to 
 explore some old tomb, or perhaps some bit 
 of what looked like fortification, or, maybe, 
 we tried to localise some fragment of ancient 
 history. Humayon's tomb, Nizam-o-deen, 
 Sufder Jung, The Kootub, Toglukhabad, 
 
 2IO 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 and many others unknown to fame, were 
 explored by us. In fact, all the country 
 west of the Jumna was familiar to me. 
 
 I had many native friends, and was con- 
 stantly hearing stories from them of low- 
 caste men — who were supposed to make 
 their living by digging bricks out of the 
 ruins and selling them to builders in 
 modern Delhi — finding treasure in the shape 
 of gold mohurs, and disappearing from the 
 ken of men. I, of course, knew that there 
 were no banks in the country, and that every- 
 one who had any money always buried it. 
 So it became more or less of a certainty in 
 my mind that these miles of ruins contained 
 an immense quantity of treasure. And I 
 think that this treasure is still to be found, 
 not only in Delhi and its neighbourhood, 
 but also in many other parts of India known 
 to me. 
 
 I took a trip to Lahore, and saw the head 
 of the Government. I stated my views 
 candidly to him, and asked for a concession 
 of the right to dig for treasure in Govern- 
 ment lands ; furthermore I stated that these 
 old ruined cities were worth practically 
 nothing, as only a few goats grazed over 
 them. 
 
 " Will you agree," he asked, " to leave 
 the land fit for agriculture ? " 
 
 21 I 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 " Certainly," was my reply. 
 
 " And will you also pay five per cent, to 
 the Government of all treasure found ? " 
 And again I assured him that I would, for 
 these were good terms and I accepted them 
 gladly. I was back at Delhi inside forty- 
 eight hours, with my concession duly 
 signed. 
 
 I had had some experience in limited 
 liability companies, and I drew up a pro- 
 spectus for " The Delhi Ancient Treasure 
 Company, Ltd.," with a capital of 100,000 
 rupees in 20,000 shares of five rupees each. 
 The expenditure of forming the company 
 amounted to only 300 rupees, and I made 
 over all my rights to the company, in return 
 for which I allotted myself 300 shares fully 
 paid. This was not exactly an avaricious 
 proceeding, as I think will generally be 
 admitted. Then I picked out five of my 
 native friends and made them directors, and 
 I chose a very good fellow, a European 
 pleader in the Courts, to be solicitor and 
 secretary to the company. 
 
 I could not be a director myself, as the 
 regulations of the service did not allow an 
 officer to be director of any company. This 
 was unfortunate, but it could not be helped. 
 The shares were readily subscribed, and 1 
 myself took a thousand ordinary shares. In 
 212 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 a few days the five-rupee share was worth 
 twenty rupees, and every day the shares con- 
 tinued to advance in price. 
 
 Then I said, " We will now dig." I 
 drew a straight line a hundred yards long, 
 and started digging in a westerly direction. 
 At a depth of 21 feet we came to water, 
 below which I felt sure that we should find 
 nothing. Earth-work was extraordinarily 
 cheap. All stones, bricks, &c., were buried 
 behind us as we advanced, and covered over 
 with earth. We made very rapid progress. 
 
 On the second day some coolies dug the 
 front face too deeply, and the earth fell on 
 them and one coolie was killed. This sent 
 the shares up to 55 rupees, the natives say- 
 ing that we must be very near the treasure, 
 as the devils guarding it had killed a man. 
 I thought that this was a good opportunity 
 to sell some of my thousand ordinary shares. 
 
 During the following day the directors 
 came to me in a body and said, " Sahib, the 
 shares are now worth 55 rupees, and we 
 must not spend the money or the shares will 
 go down." 
 
 " But we are scarcely spending anything. 
 See what a lot of ground we have opened 
 up, and altogether we have not spent 1500 
 rupees," I replied. 
 
 " Yes, yes," they agreed, " but we must 
 
 213 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 not spend the money or the shares will go 
 down." 
 
 "But," I protested, "we must spend the 
 money, or how can we find the treasure ? " 
 
 I, however, could do nothing with them, 
 for whatever I said to them, their answer 
 was invariably the same. 
 
 " Well," I said at last, " you are the 
 directors and can do what you like. But 
 you must remember that this company was 
 formed for the purpose of digging for 
 treasure." 
 
 Subsequently I had several interviews, but 
 always with no result. So, finding that I 
 could not persuade them to dig, I sold all of 
 my remaining ordinary shares. 
 
 " If you won't spend money, what will 
 you do ? " I asked them. 
 
 " We are going to dig by the advice of 
 astrologers," they replied. 
 
 " And who is your principal astrologer .? " 
 
 In answer to this question I was told that 
 the coachman of the Commissioner Sahib 
 was a first-rate astrologer, and that they were 
 going to dig by his advice. He knew of a 
 place, so I was told, where they should dig 
 on the thirteenth day of the dark half of the 
 month. They were to kill a white cock, 
 and to sprinkle his blood on all the four 
 corners of the place at midnight, and the 
 214 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 devils would then be unable to remove the 
 treasure. The astrologer was to be paid 
 thirty rupees. Astrology seemed to be 
 cheap, but it was also, I must add, entirely 
 unsuccessful. 
 
 The directors had their own way and 
 found nothing, but the shares still remained 
 in the neighbourhood of 55. 
 
 Soon afterwards I brought forward a 
 scheme and said to them : " You all know 
 the old palace of Ferozeshah, with the pillar 
 of Asoka in the middle. I have here a 
 contractor who has measured the ground, 
 and will contract to dig the whole down to 
 the water for 75,000 rupees. It contains, as 
 you know, a considerable quantity of black 
 marble slabs, and everything we find, less 
 five per cent., will be the property of the 
 company. If you directors will see the 
 contractor, you will doubtless be able to 
 make a better bargain with him than I can. 
 Some of you, I am sure, know a great deal 
 about the history of Ferozeshah's times, and 
 also of the tradition of the twenty-three 
 crores of rupees (_^23, 000,000) he had in 
 that place. You are always telling me the 
 shares will go down if we spend money. I 
 should like you to think of what they will 
 go up to if we find even a thousand gold 
 mohurs." 
 
 215 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 But I might as well have saved my exer- 
 tions and breath, for nothing that I could 
 say would move them. By this time they 
 knew that as directors the power was 
 completely in their hands, and they in- 
 tended to use it as they — and not as I — 
 wished. 
 
 As a last move, I called a general meeting 
 of the company and addressed it to this 
 effect : 
 
 " This company, as the prospectus shows, 
 was founded for the express purpose of 
 digging for ancient treasure. These inten- 
 tions your directors refuse to carry out. We 
 have ample funds, but you will not use 
 them. Altogether, you have not spent 
 2000 rupees in digging, and our capital is 
 100,000. I give you warning that if in a 
 month's time you still refuse to carry out 
 the intentions of the prospectus, I shall file 
 a petition to the Government to wind up 
 the company." 
 
 This I eventually had to do, and the 
 company was wound up. I sold the few 
 shares I still had left and took sick 
 leave to England. I was very much dis- 
 gusted, for I thought then, and still think, 
 that we wasted a most excellent opportunity. 
 Nor is Delhi the only likely place, but it 
 had this peculiarity, that at least once 
 216 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 
 
 in its history it had 150,000 inhabitants 
 killed in three days. Under such circum- 
 stances many traces of treasure must have 
 disappeared. 
 
 Then think also of how the Mahrattas 
 and the Pindarees swept the country for 
 years with their hordes of cavalry. Their 
 methods were simple. If a man was fat, 
 which in India always means rich, he was 
 naturally suspected of having buried trea- 
 sure. The usual treatment accorded him was 
 to cut off his upper eyelids, and then push 
 his head into a horse's nose-bag which con- 
 tained plenty of red pepper. 
 
 Were we English to leave India and 
 allow the Indians to rule the country, as 
 many people, mostly, however, Bengalees, 
 wish, some of these delightful practices 
 would doubtless recur. It is well that the 
 Bengalee Baboo should remember that there 
 are more fat and rich people in Bengal than 
 in any other part of India. 
 
 And now, having ventured to recount 
 some of the incidents in the earlier — and 
 more adventurous — part of my life, I will 
 end with a hope that I have not hurt 
 the feelings or wounded the sensibilities 
 of any of my readers, and with the assurance 
 that nothing has been set down in malice. 
 
 217 
 
REMINISCENCES 
 
 Should it happen, however, that I am held 
 to have been more outspoken than most 
 writers, I can only say with David Harum, 
 " If I have said anything I am sorry for, I 
 am willing to be forgiven." 
 
 Most of my friends have passed on to 
 the Great Beyond. But if I have given a 
 little amusement to those who remain by 
 chronicling these events of my life and by 
 calling up pleasant memories of bygone days, 
 I am satisfied. 
 
 To all my old Mutiny comrades, and 
 to all friends, old and new, I would say 
 " Good-bye " and " Au revoir." 
 
 JIM HARRIS 
 
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