My Diary in India, in the year 1858-9. With illustrations

Preface

. In the belief that the incidents of Indian action and personal adventures in the field may not be altogether destitute of attraction, I have prepared my journal for publication. It is with much dif fidence I ask my readers to remember that a diary is essentially an egotistical work, and that one who is lord of himself, in his memorandum book, is apt to rule it over his heritage in a very despotic and narrow spirit which shuts him up in the prison of his own thoughts, and looks very little beyond it for treaties of friendship and alliance. The frequent use of the first personal pronoun is the necessary consequence of a personal narrative, written from day to day, of the impressions made by passing events on the senses of the spectator. To the text of the Diary I have added a few notes and observations not origin ally incorporated with it ; but with this modification, and with the exception of omissions of conversations and occurrences of a private or confidential character, and of purely domestic and personal references, the MS. is printed almost as it was penned.

I sh^ll betray no confidences, I shall violate no trusts ; and if in observing that condition I may be compelled sometimes to be silent, I shall tell, at all events, a*

PREFACE.

. II when I do speak, the truth, and nothing but the truth. Whilst I was in India I had no authors to consult, no books to read, and I had no guides but my own perceptions ; but neither had I any pre judices to overcome, nor theories to support. It may so have happened that, like the traveller who stands for the first time in a great city, I have been struck by objects wliich to the inhabitants had no signi ficance or value. I may have detected a crack in the wall of the capitol which they believe to be secure because they have been looking at it so long that it ceases to cause any apprehension. Things familiar to, or unnoticed by, them, to me may have had a remarkable aspect and importance. The temples, which to my eyes seemed foul with smoke, may be under the care of cunning workmen, who, as the good citizens know, will soon restore the walls to more than pristine whiteness.

The bridges, which appeared to me sinking and gaping wide, may have some secret props that give con fidence to all the habituated that cross them. The stream, that filled me with alarm as it rolled sullenly on, may have rolled on thus for centuries and done no harm, but, passing smoothly along, have borne quiet generations to eternity. Ignorant of those hidden sources of knowledge, I stand and look around, and say, "thus does it appear to me, and thus I seem to see." In saying so I always bear in mind and fully acknowledge the liability to errors into which one may fall, who allows himself to be led by first impressions. I think it is Sir Gardner Wilkinson who tells a story in one of his books respecting a learned German who came to London,

PREFACE.

. III and at once went forth to generalize his remarks. He walked into Grosvenor Square, and observed an escutcheon on the walls of a house, which he duly considered for some time, and noted as an object to be inquired into. On going into Berkeley Square, he saw another escutcheon on the walls. "Ha!" quoth he, " I see it now," and forthwith he pro ceeded to write : " Each square in London has its distinct coat of arms, which is placed in a con spicuous place on one of the houses, and is generaUy identical with the arms of the principal proprietor." Have you ever passed through the Strand, or Fleet Street, at dawn on a summer's morning ? If so, you will have seen a street unknown to you by day — sharp gables, quaint angles, odd signs and sculptures, strange shops, new alleys — a curious old carved and irregular continental street, with antique spires peer ing over a toppling sea of roofs, as unlike the street that the good citizen sees when he takes down his shutters as Venice is to Bermondsey.

I saw India in mourning, lighted up by a blood-red conflagration, and in her misery she appeared very different indeed from the pictures wliich had been drawn of her, but they may have been, nevertheless, accurate represen tations of her former state. I know not if I have seen aright or can describe the objects which I be held ; but such as India appeared to me, it shall be, to the best of my poor ability, portrayed in pen and ink. Into the history of the Mutiny I do not pretend to go — nor will I, except incidentally, touch upon the revolt which followed it, and which was, in certain places, more or less popular in its character ; but I

PREFACE.

. trust the reader will find a recompense for the ab sence of such disquisitions in what I would fain hope to be truthful details in reference to some scenes of the revolt, and more particularly to portions of the glorious efforts wliich crushed it. If there is something to be extenuated, surely nought shall be set down in malice. If I mention names, the owners will, I trust, take it not amiss, and if they do I shall gladly make amends hereafter and erase any index to their identity. I have to express my obligations to Mr. Lundgren, to whose well-skilled pencil I am indebted for the illustrations. WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL. London, December, 1859.

PREFACE.

TO THE FOURTH EDITION. It is necessary to say a few words to my readers ere they open the fourth edition of " My Diary in India." Three large editions were sold Avith such rapidity, that I could not make the corrections for which the haste wherewith the original sheets were passed through the press in order to satisfy the exigencies of my pubhshers had given occasion. But since the appearance of the first impression, I have been revising and altering such portions of the work as seemed to me to require it ; and, struck by the frequent egotisms and allusions to personal annoyances which, though in some soil; excusable on the ground that they were con tained in what was originally a private diary, may have taxed the patience of those who travelled along Avith me, I have excised groans and lamentations which were intended merely for my peculiar solatium, and have added here and there a few notes or explanations which were rendered desirable in consequence of errors or misapprehensions on my part at the time when I was jotting down my daily notes in reference to per sons, things, or occurrences, to which I had occasion to allude.

Many of my kindly critics — and I have to acknowledge that, even in the severest notices which have been brought under my eyes, there is a strong leaven VI

PREFACE.

. of friendliness, for which I am very thankful — were under the belief that " My Diary in India," either in part or in its entirety, consisted of letters which had already appeared in the " Times " from my pen when I was engaged as Special Correspondent of that journal in India, and I have been frequently obliged to correct the mistakes which originated in such criticisms. I have observed with regret, that statements and pas sages in the work have been selected to corroborate peculiar views, or to maintain diverse crotchets, by writers who were indifferent to my professed and real intention as declared in the opening pages of the work, of recording without consciousness of prejudice the events which were passing around me, and the impressions and reflections to which they gave rise, without pretending to infalbbility of judgment and conclusion, or to correctness and profundity of observation.

Of course, I cannot dispute the right of theorists and crotchet -weavers to make use of my materials ; but I beg to assure them, they were never collected for the purposes to which they have been put. When I have recorded an act of cruelty or of humanity on the part of the white or the dark man, I have done so because the act itself struck me at the tune with feebngs of disgust or admiration. " Sunt quia videntur " is a phrase which the ch'cumstances under which the Diary was written make appUcable to what it contains. I own that I was deeply moved by the spectacle which India presented to my eyes ; but I should have been false to my heart, to my head, and to the truth as it appeared to me, if for any consideration connected with expediency or popularity with any class at home or abroad, I had not made pubhc the views I enter-

PREFACE.

. VII tained of our position in that vast empire, and of the policy we pursued in reference to its inhabitants, or had suppressed passages which honestly expressed the sentiments I, no matter how erroneously, entertained. My creed is that we never can hold India by the sword but at a cost of money which England cannot afford to pay, and that any attempt to diminish the expenditure by large employment of native mibtary agency is certainly dangerous, and will probably be unsuccessful. By the tenure of the sword I mean the use of armed force as the sole machinery of govern ment, to maintain a rule, which is — if not odious to — unpopular among — the people governed. We have neither the men, populous as are our islands — nor the money — rich as are our aristocracy, our merchants and our bourgeoisie, and liberal as are our tax-makers — to maintain an army of Europeans in India, which shall uphold our rule on its bayonets, nor do I believe that the scheme of Mr. Wdson, able as it may be, and much applauded as it is, wdl supply resources for the process out of the pockets of the natives themselves.

So long as the evils of our law courts, and the mischiefs of our administrative system, remain uncorrected and unmiti gated — so long as we regard India as a mere cotton field, as an indigo -garden, as a plantation for the growth of five-per-cents and for enriching of younger sons, or as the arida nutrix of the civU and military services, our relations with the myriads we can neither destroy nor succeed must be uncertain and perilous. And if to the impolicy of such a course we superadd the madness which precedes the destruction of domi nant rules, and in the mere wantonness of power for ever fret and gall the chain -marks of the slave — if we

PREFACE.

. VIII permit any portion of our fellow-subjects in India to be treated by another portion of them as the Helots were treated by their Spartan masters, we shall have to encounter the sullen spirit of discontent which at any moment may become the animating principle of a terrible servile war, repeated and renewed again and again till the crust on which our power was sustained, destroyed and eaten through by incessant and never dymg flames, drops into the boiling lava beneath our feet, carrying with it the prestige of the British name, and the traces of the magnificent audacity, of the indomitable courage, of the subtle genius, of the kinglike statesmen who founded and stabditated the most extraordinary possession of which History speaks or shall be able to speak in times to come ! — That the evd day may be averted I heartily hope ! — That the direct reign of the Queen over India may be the date which a remote posterity, prosperous, peaceful, happy, and christianised, shall look back upon through a long vista of ages, as that which inaugurated the reforms and instituted the privdeges which shall then make that Empire the pride and glory of Great Britain, and the immortal credit of her people, I fervently pray. WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL. London, April, 1860. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Page

Departure for the East. — Scant time for preparation. — My fellow-passengers. — Marine cookery. — Daily life in au oriental steamer ...... 1

Chapter II

Arrival at Malta.— Sir EJmund Lyons and Balaklava. — Proposed bombardment of Odessa. — General Pennefather. — The fortifications at Malta. — Characteristics of the Maltese. — Alexandria. — One-eyed pilot and boatmen — News from Lucknow and Cawnpore. — Havelock's death. — -The landing-place at Alexandria. — The railway station. — Arrival at Cairo. — The Hotel du Nil 11

Chapter III

The bazaar of Cairo. — Felicitous arrangements for passengers. — A "gentleman." — French influences. — English behaviour. — Oriental gravity. — The Desert. — Arabian Navvies. — Lost in darkness. — The Hotel at Suez. — The "American System." — Picturesque dirtiness. — Arab Crafts and their crews. — Exhausting heat 31 b X CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Page

A vow. — An appeal on behalf of the ladies. — The surgeons' and officers' cabins. — Learned pundits. — The walnut stage of argument. — La race blanche. — Why are we in India ? — The hottest place in the world. — Flying fish. — The French at Pondicherry. — Mistake imputed to the English. — Is our French friend right ? — A novel resting-place. — Astronomical contemplations. — Washing decks -k;

Chapter V

Music. — Pirates or pilgrims ? — Miss Telle and Mr. Quel. — Flying-fish or sandlarks 1 — A doctrine both new and old. — Traditional Nabobs. — Eagles and eaglets. — The Isle of Perimm. — Aden. — Simawlees and Arabs. — The "Prince of Wales " hotel. — Cowasjee's shop. — Athletic sports. — A souvenir of the Crimea. — The Nubians and the Almaites. — -A Calvinistic sermon. — Sea-serpents and sea-snakes. — The harbour of Galle . Cl

Chapter VI

Point de Galle. — Lorette's Hotel. — O'Dwyer, the waiter. — A slice of old Europe. — Old friends and old times. — Cricket with thermometer at 98°. — Real tropical vegetation. — Departure from Ceylon. — Native habit of hoarding. — Our ignorance of Indian social life. — Approaching the land. — The pilot, and his letter-bag. — Startling news. — Corporal Brown. — India safer than Ireland . . . . 79

Chapter VII

The Hooghly. — Hindoo Temples. — Garden Reach. — Floating Hindoo corpses. — The Bengal Club. — The city of palaces. — The Fort. — Simon, once Allagapah. — The Esplanade. — A drive in the dark. — Europeans and Indians. — The Auckland hotel. — Proposed objects for investigation. — Musquitoes and jackals ..... CONTENTS. XI PAGE 130 149 163

Chapter VIII

A delightful rush at clear, cold water. — Black washerman. — The Ochterlony monument. — Government House. — Absence of English domestics. — Interview with Lord Canning. — Hospital for sick and wounded officers. — Kindness of the ladies of Calcutta. — The "upper ten" at Lucknow. — The Southwark of Calcutta. — Paucity of white faces. — A row by moonlight. — Burning ghauts. — Indian official papers. — General Dupuis. — A ball at Fort William 110

Chapter IX

Preparing for a start. — The king of Oude's menagerie. — Simon and Sally Bridget. — My fellow-traveller, Dr. Mouat. — The rajah of Pachete. — Raneegunj. — A mess-dinner. — Camp of Government elephants. — Locomotion by gharry. — A shattered wheel and its consequences. — Fording a river. — Numerous tanks, birds and squirrels. — Bungalows. — Theory and practice. — " Serry Shrab." — Approach to Benares. — The Holy Ganges. ....

Chapter X

Outside of Benares. — Allahabad : the fort. — A canvas wall. — The Governor-General's tent. — Lieut. P. Stewart. — A colonel of sepoys. — Poor Clarke ! — Question and answer. — Railway terminus. — A short walk. — Gharrys for Cawnpore. — Sir Robert Garrett's tongue. — Hall at Futtehpore

Chapter XI

Look at Cawnpore ! — Its atrocities paralleled in History. — Azimoola Khan. — Strange curiosity in an. Asiatic. — Barracks. — Miserable defensive position. — Camp of Sir Colin Campbell. — A compact. — The Highland bonnet. — Head-quarters' staff-mess. — General Mansfield. — My tent and its attendants. — Dinner with the Commander-in-Chief. — The French General, Vinoy .... CONTENTS.

Chapter XII. Page

Wheeler's intrenchment.— Windham's position. — The two parts of an Indian station. — An imaginary review. — The Cutchery.— A Bedouin of the Press.— Generals cannot " do the graphic."— Bottled beer.— Members of our mess. —School of dialectics.— Improved life of Europeans. — Want of sympathy for natives.— Up-country life and Calcutta life.— Sir Hugh Wheeler's ayah.— Sir Archdale Wilson. — Captain Peel and his blue jackets. — Cawnpore dust. ■ — " A shave of old Smith's."— Cawnpore in its palmy days. — Beggars and wigwam villages . • ■ 178 CHAPTEE XIII. Action at Meeangunj. — Sir Colin Campbell and Jung Bahadoor. — Hindoo temples mined. — Moonlight walk with Sir Colin. — Notes on the birds. — A bad day for quadrupeds. — Fishing in the Ganges. — Morning devotions. — Our first haul. — Plan of attack on Lucknow. — General notion of our plan of attack. — Astonishment of an old Sikh. — Scene of the Cawnpore tragedy. — Divine service in the ruined church. — A distant cannonade. — Reports of spies. — The enemy in immense force. — The Adjutant-General. — A near approach to ubiquity. — Camp of the Agra convoy. — Rotting corpses . . . . . .196

Chapter XIV

The army massing itself. — A living corpus delicti. — Sir J. Outram attacked. — Buy a gharry, a horse, and coachman. — Our army on the move. — Destruction of Hindoo temples. — Reply to "a priest's intercession. — War, and no quarter given. — Indiscriminate executions. — Striking tents. — Camels and their burdens. — A welcome invitation. — Cross the Ganges into Oude. — An apparently illimitable procession. — A notion of Old World times. — " Master's mess buckree." — Ruined villages. — Orders for marching . CONTENTS. XIII

Chapter XV. Page

The first bugle. — The head of the column. — Sunrise. — Bullocks, camels, and elephants. — The white mare. — Sinking down into a gulf. — "Are you kilt, sir ?" — A fast-trotting camel. — False alarm. — Camp grass-cutters. — Sir William Peel and his heavy guns. — Left behind. — Kavanagh. — A joyful surprise. — Orders to march .... 232

Chapter XVI

March for Lucknow. — A vision. — Jellalabad. — Sepoy skeletons. — An old Sikh officer. — Sergeant Gillespie. — Site of our new camp. — The Martiniere. — The Dilkoosha. — A breach of etiquette. — View from the roof of the Dilkoosha. — The enemy's trenches. — A round shot. — Striking beauty of Lucknow. — A young langour. — Visitors and guests . 245

Chapter XVII

A narrow escape. — Under fire. — A kind of club-meeting. — Horsford and the yellow eunuch. — Personnel of our officers. — Reconnoitring. — A prettily-adjusted brass shell. — Sepoys' courage. — The yellow eunuch again.— Floating bridge across the Goomtee. — Habitual use of a telescope.— -Advance ofthe enemy. — A brisk cannonade. — Brijeis Kuddr. — Daily avocations, — General order from Bahadoor Khan. — Fly-fishing. — A dignified retreat .... 260

Chapter XVIII

Sir Colin Campbell's plan of operations. — A beautiful sight. — Unjust estimate of men's actions. — The enemy swarm. — The Bays, the Artillery, and the Rifles. — The day's work done. — Outram's camp. — The enemy active and unhappy. — Little Miss Orr. — Preparations for Outram's advance. — Kite-flying. — Warfare and cruelty. — Native milk-women. — Outram's advance. — My Caubulee pony. — A terrible CONTENTS. PAGE game of cricket. — The storming party. — "Pandy" and " Smith." — Assault of the Martiniere. — A canter to the newly-gained post. — Butler, of the Bengal Fusileers. — Pandy's deserted trenches. — Sikh barbarity. — The Begum still undaunted ...... 278 CHAPTEE XIX. Outram's great success. — Jung Bahadoor's arrival announced. — Poor Garvey ! — The Begum Kothie. — The Maharajah's reception. — The Begum Kothie taken. — The rush of the 93rd. — Horrors ineffable. — The Secunderbagh. — General Outram's camp. — " The Bayard of India." — The Badshahbagh. — Cunoujee LaU. — An old curiosity shop. — Death of Hodson. — Tremendous bombardment ... . 304

Chapter XX

Capture of theKaiserbagh. — The camp in commotion. — Voila la difference ! — Marks of shot and shell. — Poor Da Costa ! — The Huzrutgunj. — Sappers at work. — Discipline after an assault. — Drunk with plunder. — A camel-load of curiosities. — Ready money transactions.— Presents of jewelry. — Camp followers. — Simon and his scales. — Telegraphic messages. — Plundering stopped. — A zenana. — Dinner with General Outram ...... 322

Chapter XXI

No rest for the rebels. — The shattered Residency. — A pleasant chat. — A capful of grape. — Street-fighting. — The great Imambarra. — View from one of its minarets. — Shots from all quarters. — A draught of nectar. — Barbarous act of an officer.— Awful accident.— News from Jung Bahadoor.— Pertinacity and Vacillation. — The Moosabagh.— Napier in distress.— Lord Canning's Proclamation. — Rev. Mr. McKay's sermons ...... CONTENTS. XV

Chapter XXII. Page

Lord Canning's Proclamation. — Visit to the begums. — Mrs. Orr and Miss Jackson. — Frightful wounds of poor Bankes. — The camp of the Seventh Hussars. — Sir James Outram and Lord Canning. — Visit to Sir William Peel. — Munoora-ood-dowlah. — Our aides-de-camps. — The Chief Commissioner of Oude. — My palkee and appurtenances sold. — Sir James Outram's departure. — Doggerel verses and charcoal sketches. — Routed by an elephant. — Sales of captured property ...... 357

Chapter XXIII

My last days in Lucknow. — The soldier's goods and chattels. — A palpable obstruction. — A night of great pain. — A melancholy mode of progression. — Lord Clinton ill at Cawnpore. — The whole art of war. — Welcome repose. — A Drive through Cawnpore. — Death of Adrian Hope. — Discomfort of night-marches. — Joy to reach the camping-ground. — The lost tent. — The ruins of Kunouj. — Futtehguhr. — Brigadier Seaton ..... 373

Chapter XXIV

Dhuleep Sing's bath. — A savage, beastly, and degrading custom — The column filing off. — Told off to an elephant. — Fields strewed with skeletons. — Junction with Walpole. — An Indian storm. — A short but grateful sleep. — -Difficulty of keeping Highlanders back. — Sir AVilliam Peel no more ! — An English soldier and his " presner." — Desperate kick from a horse. — Mounted on a tumbril. — A day of drowsy pain. — More dooly travelling. — General Penny killed. — Disaster at Kukrowlee. — Halt near Shahjehanpore. — Ride through the city. — Sea of mango groves. — Conflicting reports from Bareilly. — Bamboo backsheesh. — Expected engagements ......

Chapter I

Departure for the East. — Scant time for preparation. — My fellow passengers. — Marine cookery. — Daily life in an oriental steamer. Not one year home from the Crimea and I am once more on my way to the East — another and a farther East. Landing with the first British soldiers who set foot on the soil of Turkey in 1854, I accompanied the advanced guard of the British army to Gallipoli, then to Scutari, next to Varna, and finally to Old Fort,' and only quitted the camp hefore Sebastopol when I was left alone in the front with the rats and the Cossacks in 1856. Then, after a visit of just ten days to England, I went once more to Russia, witnessed the coronation of the Emperor at Moscow, the " barbaric pearl and gold" of the most magnificent spectacle these later ages of ours have produced, travelled south to the Crimea, revisited the resting-places of our illustrious dead, and, turning westwards to Odessa, traversed the steppes by Bender, and passing through the much disputed Bolgrad, in the beginning of winter reached Czernovitch, from which my way lay straight be fore me to London, where I arrived in the spring of 1857.

The close of the same year sees me hound VOL. I. B to the regions of which the " we " of England know so little, and as to which our carelessness has been an equivalent of our ignorance. But our apathy has been rudely disturbed. It was just as our journalists and statesmen were somewhat feebly glorifying our rule in India, and mildly rebuking the neglect which was allowing the centenary of Plassey and the grandeur of Clive to pass away unhonoured, that the day of whose advent Metcalfe had prophesied and Napier had warned dawned in Hindostan, and cast its blood-red light over the land. Hideous massacres of men, women, and children, — compared with which Sylla's proscriptions, the Sicilian vespers, the great auto da fe on Bartholomew's eve, or the Ulster outbreak of 1641, were legitimate acts of judicial punishment, — were reported to us with such sea soning of horrors, made by skilful masters in that sort of cookery, as the imagination had never be fore devised.

I had been deeply impressed by those awful scenes. I was moved to the inner soul by the narratives which came to us by every mad, and I felt that our struggle against those monsters of cruelty and lust must be crowned by Heaven with success. But after a time I began, post after post, to seek for evidence of the truth of those disgusting anecdotes, glossed with stiU more revolting insinuations. I never doubted their authenticity, but I wanted proof, and none was forthcoming. All the stories we heard ema nated from Calcutta, and Calcutta was far from the districts where, no doubt, most treacherous and whole sale murder had been perpetrated. And now I was going out to the very country which had acquired such a fearful interest in our eyes, and I hoped to join my SCANT TIME FOR PREPARATION. countrymen ere their vengeance was consummated, and India was to be restored to the tranquillity, at least, of conquest.

I had but scant time for preparation, and even that was encroached upon by domestic affairs ; but thanks to the resources of those who in London are called upon every hour to provide outfits for every por tion of the globe, I was in readiness to start within a week, crossed to Calais in a winter gale, managed to arrive in Paris just as the train for Mar seilles — the last that could catch the steamer for Alexandria — left it, journeyed express with the officer in charge of the mails, who fortunately was as late as myself, by special engine and carriage till I overtook the mail-train beyond Lyons, and had just a moment at Marseilles to get my permit ere I had to embark on board the Valetta, which was soon, with the lively habits of her class, battling the mistral in the Gulf of Lyons, and plunging through head seas like a cor morant in a tide-way.

The number of books on the overland route from time to time which have been "done" by various hands would constitute a library per se, but all its incidents have been exhausted by him who made that famous trip from Cornhdl to Cairo ; and, as I have read from an early age, ia re views and magazines, perpetual remonstrances against the vanity of those who think their eyes are better and their wit brighter than those of others, and who have, therefore, insisted on giving the public their version of the impressions produced by this beaten ground and much-vexed sea, I shall not say one word about the Mediterranean, and but httle of the waters which form by far the greater part of what is, by a sort of B " dry humour," called the overland route. Our fellow passengers were, for the most part, either old Indians, returning full of anger, gloom, and vengeance to their former posts, now freed from the enemy, or to others promised to — or to be gotten for — them, by interest and perseverance ; or young Indians, of whom one alone was preparing himself for the sphere of his labours by studying the language and history of the people.

There were also some Queen's officers going out to join their regiments, a few younger men, unposted, who expected to be attached to Queen's regiments, inasmuch as their own corps were fighting, or trying to fight, against us, and some civilians ; with a poll of wives going to their actual husbands, and of young ladies going to find, if possible, consorts in that land where they hang like flocks of the golden fleece, which daring argonauts from the schools may pluck as they will. To trace the destinations of our fellow-passengers from Malta would be to cover the East with a wide-spreading fan. There were men for Australia, for China, the dominions of the Rajah of Sarawak, for Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Java, Lahore, Aden, Bom hay, Calcutta, Ceylon, Pondicherry, and many un known places beyond the seas.

The little steamer was a turbulent microcosm, and at times, when the Me diterranean gave us a taste of its quality, and the great seas came flying over the bows, sluicing the decks with a mimic ocean, our microcosm became sick and queru lous. But even then, cigar in mouth, stood stiffly with swaying body, on well-set sea-legs, one bronzed, com pact little man, who set an example of appetite, en durance, and good humour, that provoked the invalids and attracted the few who could stand the capers of EELLOW-PASSENGERS. the Valetta. This was a French medical officer of the navy, who was going back to his duties as Intendant of Pondicherry, a man full of anecdote, resource, and observation, who had two fixed ideas — that all our naval battles were won by mistake, and that it was the mission of la race blanche to make India happy by some pro cess which the English were to begin and fail in, and which the French were finally to accomplish.