the most sacred oath of his religion, to obtain that surrender, which he and his followers dared not force. Black treachery was followed by pitiless slaughter, and the blood of the innocent called on Heaven for vengeance. Nor was Heaven indifferent to the cry. Though every circumstance seemed to promise the mutineers immunity for their crimes, a stern and speedy avenger was found in the "Puritan" soldier, Havelock, and his army of "Saints." "Though only a few thousand in number, far away from all succour, and in the ends of the earth, they marched unfalteringly amid millions of disaffected people, and armies of trained mutineers, over thousands of miles, in the worst season of the year, besieging and overthrowing great cities, meeting intrepidly all sorts of surprises, against incredible odds of numbers, and defeating day after day, vast hordes of well-armed and desperate men. They did this while the air sighed with the dying sobs of English women and children perishing under horrors which no pen has dared fully to tell. Wrung to the heart with these sorrows, but cool and determined, they marched to avenge themselves and the human race against the demonism which had broken out around them."* Honour, then, to the brave soldier, whose life-blood was shed in doing his duty; pity and tears for the fearful fate of the helpless women and innocent children; but indignation and contempt for those who wrought this shame; the gallows and the cannon are a fit punishment for the coward and the traitor.

*New York Christian Advocate and Journal.

CHAPTER XVIII.

TO MEERUTH.

Appearance of Country-Bishop Heber-Christian Missions-Colonel Tucker-Country between Futtehghur and Meeruth-Ganges Canal-An Indian "Station”—Sirdhána Dyce Sombre's Tomb-Free Lances of India-An Ingenious Process for Collecting Money-A Female General-Success of the Bégoom-To Moozuffurnuggur-Dhoolee Travelling-Persian Inscription-Natural History.

AFTER leaving Cawnpoor, the appearance of the country improved much. The population seemed thicker, the cultiva tion better, and the tôps more numerous. A tôp is a grove regularly planted, generally near a village, and used as a resting-place for caravans. The land on each side of the road was, in many places, overgrown with jungul-grass, a tall, thick sort of grass, which rises to the height of ten feet or more sometimes. Palm trees again became abundant, but I saw scarcely any banyan trees up-country.

I used to amuse myself in the gárrhee by studying Hindoostanee, and reading Bishop Heber's travels, which is the only guide-book for India, beside being extremely well written and interesting. His character must have been really lovely. He certainly made all with whom he was brought in contact, love him. It was related to me as a most remarkable proof of the great respect and affection entertained for him by all classes of both Europeans and natives, that at his death, commemorative religious services were held, not only in the churches of all the numerous Christian sects represented in Calcutta, but also in the mosques and temples of that city.

The Bishop's darling hope was the conversion of India, and he used to think that he saw hopeful signs. It would not appear, however, that the work is going on much more rapidly than in his time. The converts are few, and mostly of

the most degraded classes. The pride of caste forms an almost insurmountable barrier to the reception of the Gospel; and ages of abject superstition seem to have eradicated all noble and manly qualities from the Hindoo character.

People in this country cannot appreciate the extreme improbability, I might almost say impossibility of the conversion of a high-caste Hindoo. Humanly speaking, it would be almost as reasonable to expect the archbishop of Canterbury to sacrifice a goat to Párbutee. As for arguing with a Hindoo of intelligence, it is like using cannon against Hindoo earth-works. He will grant every argument of the Christian, will admire his religion, admit his miracles, and acknowledge the truth of the Incarnation. At the same time he will contend that he has an older and a better system, miracles much more astounding, and numberless awatars, instead of one only. He is the most tolerant man in the world; will allow every religion to be true, and as his own system will not admit of converts, he recommends every man to adhere to his particular creed, and permit him to do the same.

I arrived at Futtehghur on the morning of November 14, and at once presented my letter from Captain Hayes to Colonel Tucker. He received me very kindly, and presented me to the ladies of his family, an honour for which I was not at all prepared, dressed as I was from head to foot in white flannel. I had come to Futtehghur with the intention of proceeding thence to Nynee Thal, one of the most beautiful stations on the Himalayas. I found, however, from the Colonel, that the journey would be exposing, and the trip would take considerable time. I therefore determined, by his advice, to alter my plans and proceed instead to Munsooree, also a hill-station, but much more accessible and affording an equally fine view of the snowy range. I dined in the afternoon with the Colonel, and started in the evening by gárrhee for Meeruth. Colonel Tucker was afterwards shot through the head, while defending, in company with a few other gentlemen, a place of refuge to which they had betaken themselves with the ladies. I believe they were all massacred.

9

The Lieutenant Governor of the North Western Provinces was encamped under a top near the dâk-bungalow at Futtehghur. His camp was quite picturesque, comprising numerous tents, regularly laid out, a dozen or two of camels, half a dozen elephants, several companies of sepoys, and camp followers enough for a European army.

The country between Futtehghur and Meeruth was the best cultivated that I had seen since leaving Raneegunj. I saw for the first time several plantations of castor-oil plant. Tôps were numerous, long strings of camels constantly went by, elephants were often seen, and we passed many drays conveying bales of cotton down-country. But notwithstanding these pleasant features in the day's ride, the greater part of the country through which the road lay, was the same flat barren waste which had been wearying my eyes ever since I began my trip-a very disappointing substitute for the luxuriant foliage and picturesque scenery which I had expected to meet in India. The villages through which I passed were just as miserable as those lower down the country. They consisted of the same collections of wretched, ill-built mud huts, and displayed the same want of order, energy, and economy. Though the weather was now cold, the inhabitants were very insufficiently clad. Many of them were nearly naked, and the children entirely so, if I except a bit of string round the waist, which, as some one told me, "illustrates the intention."

As the great plain of India has no decided natural features, the absence of cultivation near the road takes away its only claim to beauty. Still, it might be tolerable, if the long level prairies were only covered with vegetation; but I did not see a square foot of turf in India from the time I left Calcutta, except in gentlemen's compounds, and most of the uncultivated land is almost as unproductive as the Arabian desert. This defect is owing to the want of water, a difficulty under which most of this country used to labour greatly; widespread droughts, causing famine over large extents of country, and the death of many thousands, being of frequent occurThe Ganges canal, however, from near the source of that river to Cawnpoor, has done much to remedy the diffi

rence.

culty, and free the husbandman from all dread of losing his crop by drought. Its length is 450 miles, or, including its branches, 900 miles. Its breadth is eighty feet and its average depth eight feet. It is bordered by rows of trees and broad tow-paths, is everywhere finished with the greatest care, and has locks and bridges of massive masonry, beside ghâts at short distances for the convenience of bathers. It is probably the most extensive and perfect work of irrigation and transportation ever constructed, secures the fertility of nearly five millions of acres, and is one of the greatest benefits conferred upon India by the British rule.

I arrived at Meeruth on the morning of the sixteenth, and took up my quarters in a hotel, which, like those 'at Seroor and Cawnpoor, was merely a large bungalow, and had accommodations for only a very few guests.

I was busy all the morning writing and making arrangements for laying a dâk to Rajpoor, a place at the foot of the Himalayas. "Laying a dâk" is a technical term, and means simply bargaining with a chowdri (maître de poste) to have relays of bearers in readiness along the road for your conveyance to any point. In the afternoon I hired a buggy from the master of the hotel, and drove to a village called Sirdhana, above ten miles from Meeruth. I had to drive some distance before passing the limits of the station, which was one of the largest in the North-west, and consisted, like all others, of rows of low-walled, high-roofed bungalows in desolate compounds. Meeruth being a large station had two churches, each a tolerably exact copy of every other in India, and remarkably similar in form to a New England meeting-house. The only difference between stations is their size-in all other respects they are precisely similar. There are always the same broad, macadamized roads, crossing each other at right angles, and bordered by rows of puny trees; on each side of the road there are the same low stone walls, enclosing extensive compounds, which sometimes contain trees, sometimes are entirely uncared for; in the midst of each compound rises a bungalow, an exact model of any other within a thousand miles, looking like a hay-stack with its high, thatched roof.