We
Were Not Long, Therefore, In Making Our Arrangements For Escaping From
Allahabad, With The Prospect Before Us Of Exchanging
The discomforts
of another hot season in the plains, for the pleasures of a sojourn in
the far-famed valley
Of Cashmere, and a tramp through the mountains of
the Himalayas - the mountains, whose very name breathes of comfort and
consolation to the parched up dweller in the plains. The mountains of
"the abode of snow!"
Our expeditionary force consisted at starting of but one besides the
brother officer above alluded to - the F. of the following pages
- and myself. This was my Hindoo bearer, Mr. Rajoo, whose duty
it was to make all the necessary arrangements for our transport
and general welfare, and upon whose shoulders devolved the entire
management of our affairs. He acted to the expedition in the capacity
of quartermaster-general, adjutant-general, commissary-general,
and paymaster to the forces; and, as he will figure largely in the
following pages, under the title of the "Q.M.G.," and comes, moreover,
under the head of "a naturally dark subject," a few words devoted to
his especial description and illumination may not be out of place.
With the highest admiration for England, and a respect for the
Englishman, which extended to the very lining of their pockets,
Mr. Rajoo possessed, together with many of the faults of his race,
a certain humour, and an amount of energy most unusual among the
family of the mild Hindoo. He had, moreover, travelled much with
various masters, in what are, in his own country, deemed "far lands;"
and having been wounded before Delhi, he had become among the rest of
his people an authority, and to the Englishman in India an invaluable
medium for their coercion and general management.
To us he proved a most efficient incumbent of the several offices
we selected him to fill. His administration no doubt did display an
occasional weakness; and his conduct as paymaster to the forces was
decidedly open to animadversion; for, in this capacity, he seemed to
be under the impression that payments, like charity, began at home,
and he also laboured under a constitutional and hereditary infirmity,
which prevented him in small matters from discerning any difference
between MEUM and TUUM.
Having been employed collectively, however, it would be unfair to judge
of his performances in detail; and from his satisfactory management
of the expedition, occasionally under such trying circumstances as a
break-down in the land transport, or an utter failure in his tobacco
supply, we had every reason to be satisfied with our choice. The
latter misfortune was the only one which really interfered at any time
with his efficiency, or upset his equanimity, and it unfortunately
occurred always at the most inopportune seasons, and at a time when
he was undergoing his greatest hardships.
As long as the supply lasted, the mysterious gurglings of his "Hubble
Bubble," or cocoa-nut water-pipe, might be heard at almost any hour of
the day or night.
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