From A Note On The
Fly-Leaf It Appears That From The Time Of Quitting The Gun-Boat At
Krenggyuen To His Arrival At Toungoop He Covered About 240 Miles On Foot,
And That Under Immense Difficulties, Even As To Food.
He commemorated his
tribulations in some cheery humorous verse, but ultimately fell seriously
ill of the local fever, aided doubtless by previous exposure and
privation.
His servants successively fell ill, some died and others had to
be sent back, food supplies failed, and the route through those dense
forests was uncertain; yet under all difficulties he seems never to have
grumbled or lost heart. And when things were nearly at the worst, Yule
restored the spirits of his local escort by improvising a wappenshaw, with
a Sheffield gardener's knife, which he happened to have with him, for
prize! When at last Yule emerged from the wilds and on 25th March marched
into Prome, he was taken for his own ghost! "Found Fraser (of the
Engineers) in a rambling phoongyee house, just under the great gilt
pagoda. I went up to him announcing myself, and his astonishment was so
great that he would scarcely shake hands!" It was on this occasion at
Prome that Yule first met his future chief Captain Phayre - "a very
young-looking man - very cordial," a description no less applicable to
General Sir Arthur Phayre at the age of seventy!
After some further wanderings, Yule embarked at Sandong, and returned by
water, touching at Kyook Phyoo and Akyab, to Calcutta, which he reached on
1st May - his birthday.
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