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movement of troops and officers towards the east has been regarded as a part of the same system of abandonment and abdication; and it is even thought that my travelling, with a certain degree of official splendour, in an opposite direction, as it has attracted considerable notice and curiosity among the inhabitants of those distant regions, has had the effect of giving them more favourable thoughts of the security and permanency of the British Government.

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November 16.-I breakfasted and passed the day with Mr. Hawkins at what he calls his country-house, a large and handsome building very prettily situated, with a farm of four hundred acres round it, little less neat and Englishlooking than if it had been in Norfolk. His trees are very fine, but the whole view is flat, though here again I was told I ought to see the mountains. In our return to Bareilly, I saw some interesting animals: a fine covey of wild peacocks arose at some little distance; a mungoose or ichneumon crossed the track, and at Mr. Hawkins's door we found a beautiful and rare animal of the deer kind, which had just been sent him as a present from the hills. It is now about the size of a large fallow-deer, with upright horns, not palmated, but is still young, and is expected to grow so tall and stout as to bear a saddle. It is of a brown colour, mixed with gray and black, and its hair very thick, and as coarse and strong as hogs' bristles. Mr. Hawkins said he thought it would turn the edge of a sword. It is a gentle and tame creature, eating from and licking the hands of any one who caresses it. It is called goonh, and is considered a great rarity in the plains, though among the mountains it is not uncommon, and sometimes used to carry the children of great men. It seems to be as yet unknown to European naturalists, at least I never heard the name, nor saw any drawing like it; were the horns palmated it would most resemble the elk.

I have been for some time in much doubt as to the expediency, after the many delays which I had experienced in my journey of proceeding to Almorah, but what I heard during these few days at Bareilly determined me in the affirmative. Though an important station it has never been visited by any clergyman; and I was very anxious not only to give a Sunday to its secluded flock, but to ascertain what facilities existed for obtaining for them the occasional visits, at least, of a minister of religion, and for eventually spreading the Gospel among these mountaineers, and beyond them into Thibet and Tartary. The former of these objects I

by their men. The contest was severe from the superiority of the enemy's force, but decisive. Mr. Shore was opposed to several single combatants, and received two sabre wounds in the breast.

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have good hopes, of being able to accomplish; a residence in these cold and bracing regions may, in many cases, do as much good to chaplains and missionaries, exhausted by the heat of the plains, as a voyage to Europe would do; and good men may be well employed here, who are unequal to exertion in other parts of our eastern empire. To the se cond there are many obstacles, not likely, as yet, to be overcome; and in encountering which considerable prudence and moderation will be necessary. But there are facilities and encouragements also, which I did not expect to find; and if God spare me life and opportunities, I yet hope to see Christianity revived, through this channel, in countries where, under a corrupted form indeed, it is said to have once flourished widely through the labours of the Nestorians. My opinion

as to the advantage which might arise from such a visit, was fully confirmed; and I found reason to believe that late as the season was, and much as I have to do, the present is likely to be the best, if not the only opportunity for such an excursion.

The whole skirt and margin of the mountains are surrounded by a thick forest of nearly two days' journey, with a marshy soil and an atmosphere, during two-thirds of the year, more pestilential than the Sunderbunds, or the grotto Dei Cani; a literal" belt of death," which even the natives tremble to go near, and which, during the rains more particularly, the monkeys themselves are said to abandon. After the middle of. November this is dry, practicable and safe; so that the very delays which have thrown my arrival in Rohilcund so late, have given me an opportunity which I may, under the usual circumstances of my visitation, never have again, of penetrating into Kemaoon. Above all, every body tells me that, except in a case of real necessity, a journey into the Himalaya should never be undertaken by women and children: that camels, elephants, tents, and palanquins, nay, even horses, such as are usually ridden in the plains, must be left behind at Bamoury Ghat, and that nothing but mules, mountain-ponies, the yak," or Thibet cow, and active unencumbered foot-passengers, can make their way along the tracks and beside the precipices which are to be traversed. This, if true, destroys much of the hope which has already reconciled me to leaving many interesting spots unvisited, that I might see them at some future opportunity with my wife and children; and though I have little doubt that these difficulties are greatly

* The Nestorians are a sect of ancient Christians, who take their name from Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, who lived in the fifth century, and whose doctrines were spread with much zeal through Syria, Egypt, Persia, India, Tartary, and China.-ED.

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PREPARATIONS FOR JOURNEY INTO KEMAOON.

exaggerated, still it is plain that without a previous reconnoitring, I could never take them such a journey, in defiance of such assurances. For the present excursion, Captain Satchwell, the acting commissary-general of the district, promised me the use of some mules, which Government was sending up to Kemacon for the public service there. Mr. Boulderson, the collector, offered me the loan of an able and experienced pony; and I received a letter from Mr. Trail, the commissioner for the affairs of the hill countries, offering me eve ry assistance in the last four mountain stages. Under these circumstances, I made up my mind not to miss the opportunity, and arranged to send off my tents, &c. on Wednesday evening, being the earliest moment at which my necessary arrangements could be completed.

November 17.-This day was chiefly taken up in packing. My plan was to take my whole caravan to Bamoury at the first rise of the hills, where the air is good, and supplies are plentiful, and leave them encamped there till my return. Accordingly I sent off in the evening the greater part of my escort, servants and animals, retaining only ten sepoys, some bearers, my horse, and the suwarree elephant, with his mohout and coolie.

CHAPTER XVII.

BAREILLY TO ALMORAH,

FIRST DISTANT VIEW OF THE HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS-SHEES-
GUR VISIT FROM RAJA AND SONS-ACCOUNT OF TERRAI
66 ESSENCE OF OWL"-WRETCHEDNESS OF INHABITANTS—
KULLEANPOOR-TIGER-HUNT-RUDERPOOR-CASE OF MA-
LARIA FEVER-BURNING THE JUNGLE-TANDAH-BAMOURY

BEEMTHAL-WATER-MILL-KHASYA

NATION-RAMGHUR

SIKH MOUNT MERU-PILGRIM TO BHADRINATH.

November 18.-I went this morning from Mr. Hawkins's house to a village named Shahee, about sixteen miles over a country like all which I had yet seen in Rohilcund, level, well cultivated, and studded with groves, but offering nothing either curious or interesting, except the industry with which all the rivers and brooks were dammed up for the purpose irrigation, and conducted through the numberless little channels and squares of land which form one of the most striking peculiarities of Indian agriculture. The country is almost

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entirely planted with wheat, with a few fields of Indian corn, and the pulse called dal. I looked out vainly all the morn ing for the mountains, which, at the distance of fifty miles, for the nearest range is no further, ought certainly now to be within sight. All I saw, however, was a heavy line of black clouds, in the direction in which I knew them to be; and when this gradually melted before the rising sun, it was succeeded, by a grey autumnal haze, through which nothing was distinguishable.

At Shahee I found Mr. Boulderson, the collector of the district, encamped in the discharge of his annual duty of surveying the country, inspecting and forwarding the work of irrigation, and settling with the Zemindars for their taxes. His tent, or rather his establishment of tents, was extremely large and handsome. That in which he himself lived was as spacious as those which were first sent me from Cawnpoor, with glass doors, a stove, and a canvass enclosure at one end, which, in Calcutta, would have passed for a small compound. He had a similar enclosure at some little distance, adjoining his servants' tent for cooking; and on the whole, my tent, a regulation field officer's and my whole establishment, which I had till now thought very considerable for a single man, looked poor and paltry in comparison. For such a journey as mine, however, I certainly would not exchange with him; and the truth is, that to persons in his situation, who have no occasion to go far from home, or to make long marches, these luxuries are less cumbersome than they would be to me; while, on the other hand, they pass so much of their time in the fields, that a large and comfortable tent is to the full as necessary for them as a bungalow. Mr. Boulderson had goodnaturedly waited two days at Shahee to give me time to overtake him, and now offered to accompany me to the foot of the hills at least, if not the first stage amongst them. In the passage of the forest, with which he is well acquainted, he says he expects to be of service to me. He strongly recommends our pushing on through the forest in a single march. The distance, he allows, is too great, being 26 miles; but he regards it as a less evil to ourselves, our attendants, and animals, than remaining a day and night at Tandah, the intermediate station, a spot which at no season of the year can be considered as quite safe, either from fever or tigers. Against the former of these dangers I had been furnished with a set of instructions by Mr. Knight, the station surgeon of Bareilly. Natives, Mr. Knight thinks, are more liable to the complaint, and recover from it with greater difficulty, than Europeans, who are, in the first instance, better protected against the damp and unwholesome air, and whose full habit of living.

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and the high temperature of their health, make the work of depletion with them at once more easy and more effectual, than with men whose pulse is always feeble, and who sink at once into despondency on the attack of a disease which they know to be dangerous.

As to tigers, though we may possibly hear their roars, and see traces of their feet, it is not often that they venture near the fires of an encampment, or the formidable multitude of men which such an encampment as mine presents to them. Still, if a tiger shows himself, it will, in all probability, be at Tandah; and though I should not dislike to see the animal in its natural state, I am bound, for the sake of my halfnaked and careless followers, and my numerous train of animals, still more than my own, not to linger twelve hours in a spot of so bad reputation. In the day time, at this season, and by those who merely pass along the beaten track, neither fevers nor tigers are usually to be apprehended. The latter, indeed, on any approaching bustle, keep themselves, at those hours, so close in cover, that those who seek them find it difficult enough to start them. Mr. Boulderson is a keen sportsman, and told me several interesting facts respecting the wild animals of this neighbourhood. The lion, which was long supposed to be unknown in India, is now ascertained to exist in considerable numbers in the districts of Saharunpoor and Loodianah. Lions have likewise been killed on this side the Ganges, in the northern parts of Rohilcund, in the neighbourhood of Moradabad and Rampoor, as large, it is said, as the average of those in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope. Both lions, where they are found, and tigers, are very troublesome to the people of the villages near the forest, who, having no elephants, have no very effectual means of attacking them with safety. The peasantry here, however, are not a people to allow themselves to be devoured without resistance, like the Bengalees; and it often happens that, when a tiger has established himself near a village, the whole population turn out, with their matchlocks, swords, and shields, to attack him. Fighting on foot, and compelled to drive him from his covert by entering and beating the jungle, one or two generally lose their lives, but the tiger seldom escapes; and Mr. Boulderson has. seen some skins of animals of this description, which bore the strongest marks of having been fought with, if the expression may be used, hand to hand; and were in fact slashed all over with cuts of the "" 'tulwar, or short scimitar. reward of four rupees for every tiger's head brought in, is given by Government; and if the villagers of any district report that a tiger or lion is in their neighbourhood, there

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