Fifteen years in India; or sketches of a soldier's life ... by an officer in His Majesty's service

Front matter

FIFTEEN YEARS J!>: INDIA; OR, SKETCHES OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE. BEING AN ATTEMPT TO DESCRIBE PERSONS AND THINGS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF HINDOSTAN. FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN OFFICER IN HIS MAJESTY'S SERVICE. Speak of me as I am — nothing extenuate, Nor set down ought in malice. Othello. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-HOW. 1822. London : Printed by A. &. R. Spottiswoode, New- Street- Square. TO MY FATHER, IN TOKEN OF FILIAL AFFECTION, WHICH NO CIRCUMSTANCES CAN CHANGE, THIS EFFORT OF MY PEN IS INSCRIBED, WITH THE GREATEST RESPECT. A

ADVERTISEMENT.

. Arkowsmith's new map is now in such general circulation that it seems unnecessary to increase the expense of this work by adding a geographical sketch of India, con taining the lines of march described by the author. All the principal places will be found in any of the large maps of Hindostan, by such readers as may be desirous of accompanying the writer through the different provinces he traversed. In spelling proper names of places and persons in India, more attention has been paid to the common way in which they are written by the English authorities in the country, than to any prescribed rule of orthography. As much accuracy as possible is aimed at, but it is presumed to be a matter of little consequence, whether the name of a particular province be written Guzerat or Gufrut. VI Native words are in general avoided, where English ones would answer the purpose.

Preface

. The gentleman who wrote the journal from which the following pages are chiefly drawn, went out to India in the beginning of 1805, and returned in 1819. During that period it was his lot to traverse a great part of the peninsula, from the Ganges to the Indus. He landed at Madras, and saw part of the Carnatic, joined his regiment in Malabar, and served with it in Mysore and Travancore ; after which his fortune led him to Bengal, and a few years afterwards to Bombay, where he was employed with the army in Guzerat which invaded Kutch-boos*e for the first time, marched through Kattywar, and destroyed the fastnesses of the pirates in Okamundel. His corps being then called to join the Poonah subsidiary force, an opportunity was afforded him of seeing a considerable part of the Deckan during the late Mahratta war.

The impressions made upon his mind by the scenes which he beheld in India, are now, with deference, offered to the public. Much might be written on the excusable topic of prepossession ; and, on the other hand, many arguments might be adduced to prove that all an author can say in behalf of his own book is vox et prœtcrea nihil. These pages are therefore dismissed to their fate with a short anecdote. A British officer, with a small detachment of sepoys, was stationed in a pass of the ghauts, for the purpose of intercepting the enemy's hurharus. Among many other travellers, a man in the garb of a villager was stopped. By his own account he was merely going to a neighbouring town. He wore only a cloth round his loins, a blanket, which served him as a sort of tent, being contracted to fit his head while it covered his shoulders, and a pair of old sandals.

This scanty dress and all other suspected means of concealment were carefully searched, and a stick, which he carried with little bells fixed to it, for the purpose of frightening away tigers and wild elephants on his journey through the forests, was broken lest there might be a letter enclosed. " Let him pass," said the officer. " Saheeb," replied an old subadar with a venerable beard, whose language being Hindos tannee, I shall translate, " Sir, permit the voice of experience to penetrate the ear of understanding, and suffer me, thy servant, to examine these sandals." This hint, re spectfully offered, was not scornfully rejected. The soles of the almost worn-out sandals were cut, and behold a letter in the Persian character, made up in the form of a small roll, was secured in a proper opening.

It contained information that led to the surprize and de feat of the Mahrattas, with the capture of their treasure, camels, and elephants. The native officer knew what the European did not, that the old sandals were carried by the messenger on his inarch, lest the concealed communica tion should be injured by friction, and merely put on as a ruse contre ruse, when he was taken prisoner. Thus reader, I wish with humility to insi nuate that you should examine my book very attentively, for it comes before you without the recommendation of a literary name, a high sounding title, orapowerful patron ; and there fore should it contain any interesting matter, a X it will resemble the hurkaru, you the officer, and I the old subadar, who assure you, with solemnity, that in it there is a great deal of truth.

Introduction

. 1 here is nothing, it is presumed, in the following pages, contrary to good manners, received opinions, and social duties. It may therefore be asked, Why is the title page without a name ? The writer may have a thousand reasons for anonymous publication ; but, without enumerating them, he will give at once the history of this work, and his motive for declining immediate notoriety. On both subjects it is only proper to state, that he who now obtrudes himself on attention came home from India, after a long residence there, in a debilitated state of health, with a large family, under the well-founded expectation that solid independence awaited him ; but so great and severe were his disappointments that he retired to a mountain, where he pasted on the fireboard of his humble parlour, the singular order of the day issued by Napoleon, when First Consul, against suicide : " A soldier ought to know how to subdue sorrow, and the agitation of the passions j there is as much courage in enduring with firmness the pains of the heart, as in remaining steady under the grape-shot of a battery.

To abandon one's-self to grief without B INTRODUCTION,. resistance, to kill one's-self in order to escape from it, is to fly from the field of battle before one is conquered." — At last, remembering the precept of Virgil, " ne cede malis," he sat down to write on India. A short prospectus gave some publicity to his intention, and the proposal was countenanced by his Majesty's librarian, by his Royal Highness the Duke of York, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and two other distinguished personages. However so very few answered his letters, that one day while contemplating the fate of his undertaking, he scrib bled thus in bad verse, for when sorrow touched his heart his understanding was in the habit of flying for aid to poetry : — Adieu! if patrons fail, thou sweetest charm O Education ! to thy helping arm ! — From Homer, Cicero, and Virgil's glow, My boys the force of truth will never know, And round my girls the Graces will not play, For maids of honour must have royal pay.

Casting his eye to the window which overlooked the road winding up the mountain, he saw a gentlemanly person, of the middle size, in a blue frock, leading a handsome grey nag, approaching, which was an unusual sight. "- I think I should know you," said the stranger, extending his hand, with a friendly and familiar aspect. " Your face is that of an old Indian," replied the other, grasping the proffered hand ; — " but the name — "

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 " Thoughtless," answered he ; " the liver has altered us both ; I should not have known you either, but for your Prospectus ; — I came to see you, and put down my name ;" and he pulled some bank notes out of his pocket. " Not till the delivery," said the author. " And I hope," said Thoughtless, after some preliminaries, " you have experienced much encouragement of a private and individual na ture." " Very little. I really fear I have mistaken the public taste." " Your book is certainly addressed to the under standing, contrary to the modern system, which is to tickle the fancy, and occasionally become so pathetic that the heart almost breaks with a swell, and the soul rises towards the end into harmonic sublimity with the scene, till the curtain drops on a sort of ineffable felicity. — He who can effect this, may sport his curricle and livery, and breathe his nags at Brighton !"

" My own thoughts precisely, in better drapery than my wardrobe affords. I have often felt in clined to suspend my labours on the book in ques tion. The risk of a light work would be trifling, and should the style and matter have merit to force their way, Messrs. Longman and Co. would not hesitate to make a proposal for something more scientific. But my own adventures in India are common-place:— joined my regiment an ensign, b

INTRODUCTION.

. rose in gradation, and served a few campaigns not of an interesting nature." ?! The circumstances of my life have been more diversified — I shall send you my journal — use it — ' speak of measl am — nothing extenuate;' — where fictitious names are used, add or diminish at pleasure ; but where real actors are introduced, let no embellishment allure from justice and truth. You will perceive I wrote in the title page — ' Fifteen Years in India, or, Sketches of a Soldier's Life.' " " That strikes me as happy — simple — unosten tatious — it pledges to no particular line. A tangent may at any time be formed in favour of merit or expediency, as the practice is at the Horse Guards, where no promise of a step is ever given. Had it been Memoirs, Travels, or any of the designations heretofore used, some known course must have been pursued at the jog-trot of a set of palankeen boys from one regular stage to another, instead of being as free as Pug in the wilderness to jump from the sublime to the ridiculous, and to chatter and grimace, just according to the romance of my disposition."

" Exactly — you will be in tbe situation of a prudent minister of state who reserves to himself perfect liberty ; for what is there in fifteen years in. India ? In that time, it is true, a man may have seen much and observed little. It is sufficient, then, to excite curiosity, but it is by no means binding as to any particular mode of gratification. But there

INTRODUCTION.

. is a third addition, explanatory of the first and second, namely, • being an attempt to describe per sons and things in various parts of Hindostan.' " " Equally guarded I protest ; parvis componere magna, the three heads resemble those of Brahma, Vishnu, and Sheva, in the cave of Elephanta, which are curious to behold, but so difficult to understand, that learned Pundits and Christians deeply skilled in oriental lore cannot agree as to the interpre tation. " An author should consider himself as opening a game at chess. He who aims at success, whether he play a regular Philidor party or a Gambit, must well consider before he pushes his meanest pawn, for one move at the outset may so entangle his pieces, confine his field of operation, expose his king to check, and disorganize the combination of his queen, rooks, bishops and knights, that he may be mated under the very fire of his own towers, from taking up a position where his forces could not come into action."

But, gentle reader, I most conscientiously declare that I aspire not at sporting either curricle or livery, nor do I wish to breathe my nags at Brighton, though the desire of beholding the smile of my Royal Master is near my heart. The highest flight my ambition has indulged in is to have ashigrampo of such dimensions as to contain twelve persons, great and small, with an abundance of warm cushions, to protect from the penetrating winter bS

INTRODUCTION.

. air of my native hills in journeying to church. AU that is desirable in the shigrampo of Malabar, the hackery of Hindostan, the bullock coach of the Carnatic, and the palankeen carriage of Calcutta, might be adopted ; for a pair of mules or Scotch poneys, in plain clothing and harness, would trans cend a couple of oxen, notwithstanding their delicious humps, silk housings, golden tassels, and silver bells ; and a servant in clean drab surtout would be as ornamental as any turbaned driver. I would covet nothing more in the mansions of luxury, except a glass of good old Madeira or Port, instead of rasp berry and ginger substitutes ; yet the Vicar of Wake field's wife was not better pleased with champagne of her own making, than my kind-hearted rib is when she mixes the ingredients in such just propor tions that the acid does not prevail, or, as she technically says, "predominate;" nor the lusciousness hurt the vivacity or interfere with the transparency.

Nevertheless, I am seriously inclined to think that with my shigrampo, and servant in clean drab surtout, I should not have " les vapeurs noirs," or in native phrase " the blue devils," at home so often when a sigh assails me. " To be sure, my dear, as you say, we must strive to be contented ; but I wish I was once more on the sweet little island of Colabah, taking an airing to the light-house, the band playing, and all your brother officers promenading and sa luting the ladies with such grace and spirit. Then you know we would have a little tea party this

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 evening and a dance, but I must forget those happy times." Then a tear starts to that eye whose beam has pleased mine for near twenty years ; and really, sympathetic reader, one at present fills mine to think that I cannot kiss it away so as to prevent another from springing up when that deceiver Memory mocks her by representing the past more fascinating than the present. To conclude, trust me, I have more respect for your feelings, notwithstanding all the aforesaid trifling, and a better opinion of mankind in general (though I know human nature to be a curious mix tures, than not to make it my ardent aim to afford you information and entertainment. B 4> SKETCHES.