Recollections of Thirty-nine Years in the Army

b"-?Reduced allowances-?Conditions on board-?Amusements for men-?For officers-?"Speaking" ships-?A dismasted vessel-?First sense of responsibility-?Indiscipline-?Neptune-?On board-?Table Bay-?Sho

The Punjab in a state of disturbance and convulsion; law and order had ceased; isolated murders and massacres instigated by opposing claimants to the throne left vacant

ctivity at Chatham, then the only depot whence recruits and young officers were sent to regiment

everal ailments; thence discharged to join their respective depots, or from the service on such pensions as they were deemed entitled to by length of ser

ss long, according to individual circumstances, for the special duties before them; meanwhile they recei

en by old officers or other men whose social position was a guarantee in regard to character and fitness of their nominees for the position sought by them; certificates by professors and teachers

nned when, close upon the hour of midnight, the papers were delivered. Great was the pride and rejoicing with which some of our number read the announcement relating to them; great the disappointment of th

as well as to routine and discipline, to be turned to account-?or otherwise-?in the career upon which we were entering. But the process of "breaking in" was not without its disagreeables. Courtesy towards young officers on the part of their

rs," and that to obtain it, personal application must be made at their old historical house in Leadenhall Street-?a formality which was gone through with ease and success. This is what the appointment in question implied:-?Not only did I receive the free passage to which I was entitled, my daily rate of pay3 running on the while, m

or example: side or stern ports there were none, deck ventilators being considered sufficient. Food stores comprised casks of salted beef and pork; tins of soup and bouillé, potatoes and other vegetables, some dried, some tinned; pickles and lime juice, bread, otherwise hard biscuit, destined ere many weeks had elapsed to beco

hrough Rochester, Strood, and so by road to Gravesend. There it was conveyed on board the Indian; twenty-

most impressed us, the clear moonlight, the starry galaxy of the heavens, the Milky Way, the cloudless sky, the phosphorescence of the undulating sea through which our s

religious convictions. An ancient subaltern, inured to the chagrin of having been several times purchased over by men of less service but more fortunate than himself in worldly means. The lady's man, pretentious and vapid, given to solos on a guitar; the instrument ado

leasant that carpenters were set to work to cut out stern ports for ventilation. Our progress so slow that with al

currents. But none of these explained the fact of our being passed by vessels, some of which, on the horizon astern of us in the morning,

ade that all hands, including crew and troops, must submit to reduced allowance of food and water. Of the latter, the full allowance per head per day

se to the main hatch, directly exposed to rain from starboard; except a canvas screen, no separation between the quarters of unmarried and those of married; no separate accommodation for sick women or children; no prison set apart for the refractory. All over the ship myriads of cockroaches; these insects, especially lively at night, supplied to men and officers excitement and exercise, as, slipper in hand, they hunted them whenever the pale light given by the

encouraged, their selection left to men's own choice. In working the ship ready hands were at all times available. Gymnastics and feats of strength were in high favour, and so, with the routine of gu

angerous adventures in the rigging, and on Saturday evenings, toasts, then usual on such occasions, enthusiastically "honoured." A weekly newspaper was set

board others we exchanged visits, strange as such ceremonies may seem to those now acquainted only with modern twenty-knot floating steam palaces. While paying such

tance was quickly taken. Boats were lowered, parties of sailors and recruits, accompanied by some officers, were soon on board. Within a few hours defects were made good as far as tha

board had so far remained good, notwithstanding all the drawbacks experienced. The likelihood, however, that this happy state of thing

as yet but partly tutored in military duties and order. Unwilling obedience had from the first been shown by several of their number; then came irreg

understanding had been come to to have what they called "a disturbance" on board. Those intentions having come to the ears of the officers, with the further information that fully ninety men were implicated, preparations were made for emergencies: arm-ra

st a flare of blue lights on the forecastle, on our coming to his dominions. Having done so, he returned to his element; his car a burning tar-barrel, which we continued to watch as it seem

ing shaving, "bathing," besides some others by no means pleasant to their subjects. One of our young recruits strongly resisted the ordeal through which several of his comrades had passed. He succeeded in making his escape from his captors, and quickly mounting the ship's railing, thence plunged into the sea, to the consternation and horror of us all. The vessel was instantly

Mountain, as its grandeur became more and more distinctly revealed. Hardly less was our estimate of the

ady placed at gangways and other points on deck, prevented traffic between our men and the small craft. The aspect of boats and their crews was alike new and strange to most of us: the former, striped with gaudy

rly invariable in their uniformity. Great wagons, drawn by teams of oxen, from six to twelve in number-?and even more-?were being driven along by Malays, armed with whips of alarming proportions; though, fortunately for the beasts of burthen, they were little used. Cro

r and other pines, geraniums, pomegranates, and heaths, interspersed with herbaceous plants bearing gorgeously coloured flowers. At intervals there were richly cultivated fields and valleys; on or near them attractive-looking houses, many having attached

and supercilious; by the departmental chief so kindly, as by contrast to make an impression upon us, but partially inured to official ways as we

led. Children, apparently near to death, lay in cots by the side of their prostrate mothers, whose feebleness rendered them unable to give the necessary aid to their infants. A state of indescribable filth existed everywhere; ventilation there was none in the proper sense. Women and children affected with measles in very severe form, that disease having been brought on board in the persons of some of those embark

d friends; visits were interchanged, then leave was taken of each other with expressions of good wishes. By-and-by there came to anchor the ship Nanking, having on board recruits

stom of the time, an invitation to dinner with the officers was received on board. The party on that festive occasion numbered seventy,

reduced to a series of intervals between doors and windows; the arrangements new to us, but suited to climatic conditions of the place. Little a

nd comfort. His garden, situated in Kolf Street, extensive, elegantly laid out, with large collection of plants indigenous and foreign; at intervals fountains and ornamental lakes. In the latter were thousands of gold fish, so tame as to app

oteworthy incident; then sighted the island of Amsterdam, from whic

isturbance amounting to mutiny among the crew. The captain7 signalled for assistance. A party of our young soldiers, under command of an officer, pro

vessel becoming more rapid than it had hitherto been. The tedium of the voyage had told upon us; idleness had produced its usu

n, however, indicates that our ship is out of reckoning; that, as for some time past suspected, something has gone wrong with the chronometers. Wisely, the captain determines to proceed no farther for the present

envoy at Cabul, Sir William Macnaughten, murdered by the hand of Akbar Khan; the 44th Regiment annihilated, part of a force comprising 4,500 fighting men and 12,000 camp-followers who had started on their disastrous retr

ngle, cultivated plots of ground, palms, bamboos, buffaloes and cattle of other kinds. In slimy ooze gigantic gavials; in the river dead bodies of animals and human beings, vultures and crows perched upon and tearing their decomposing flesh. Native boats come alongside; their swarthy, semi-naked crews scream and gesticulate wildly as the

y arrived recruits. Our actual numbers so transferred equalled those originally embarked, two lives lost during our voyage being made up for by two births on board. Sanitation,