Routledge, Warne & Routledge London & New York

MY GHARRY, PREPARING TO START

Day & Son, Litli The Queen.

LOCOMOTION BY GHARRY.

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all about the Rise and Progress of the British Rule in India, and it was something more than curious to look at a beast that might have seen Clive at the battle of Plassey-that was advanced in years when we were fighting Mahrattas and Pindarees, and were invading Rohilcund for our good ally the Newab Vizier of Oude. Bulky as the elephant is, there is no repose about him; some part or other of his great carcase is for ever in motion-an ear is flickered to and fro, or the tail is switched about, or there is one foot propped against a leg, and all the time the trunk is at work, like a huge snake, coiling itself up or stretching itself out, or turning up or down, or trumpeting with pleasure or pain.

I passed the afternoon among the elephants till 4 P.M., when it was announced that the gharrys were ready-and so indeed four or five bakers' carts, or penitentiary laundresses' vans-boxes of wood on wheels were duly waiting for our accommodation. An inspection made it appear that there were slides which pushed aside, or opened out, and served as doors or windows. The traveller, when he has one to himself, gets his bed made, and stretches luxuriously at full length; for a spare cushion is made to fit the interval between the seats, and beneath it is stowed some of the luggage. There are shelves and lockers at the ends of the vehicle, and-when it is well slung on the springs, and the four wheels are properly consorted -it is not by any means, apart from the question of horses, an uncomfortable means of locomotion. Like the Russian boyard in his carriage, or tarantassee, the Indian traveller lives in his gharry, sleeps in it, and often eats in it. Ere we started, one of the party

had a row with a driver; he took up his horn, which hung from the box, and blew it-and the fellow, who was a Mussulman, swore it was defiled-a question of rupees. There were only four gharrys available. General Garrett had one-Dallas and Oxenden another-Sladen, of the Madras Fusiliers, and Surgeon Beath the third-and the fourth fell to my lot. Simon got on the roof, the driver-of course a tall, heavy man-dressed in a tattered blue caftan with a red trimming, bore on his heart a brass badge with the words “mail driver." With him was a sprite, whose business I found was to flog and otherwise excite the horses to start and keep at it; and, after much reluctance cunningly overcome, the horses rushed off in a cloud of dust at a gallop, and away we went along the main trunk road, which lay like a great white riband straight before us. * * * *

I was awoke by a violent shock about three hours after we started--the carriage was nearly on its sidethe driver was shouting furiously—and his poor sprite lay with a fractured leg by the road-side. The tire of the fore wheel had come off, and the spokes were shattered to pieces. We were nearly thirty miles from Raneegunj, where alone another wheel could be procured. This was an inauspicious commencement to our journey. The driver must ride back to Raneegunj-Simon must start for the nearest police-station, to get some Chowkeydars to watch the carriage-and I am left alone in the dark with the poor lad, who is moaning and crying with pain. It was a long, sad vigil. After a time the moon rose. Jackals and wolves howled in the field close at hand-a few natives crept past like ghosts-not one stayed to comfort the poor boy,

FORDING A RIVER.

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whose language I did not understand, and who rejected the flask I offered him. In a couple of hours -they seemed long ones-Simon came back with half-a-dozen native policemen. They lighted a fire in the road, and sat round it talking till dawn. At last another gharry had arrived from Raneegunj-the luggage was transferred to it, and the boy with the broken leg was taken on one of the policemen's shoulders.

Soon after we started, at five o'clock or so, the carriage again halted. The door was opened by a wild-looking man, who, with signs, seemed to intimate that Simon had fallen off and broken his thigh. The more correct interpretation was given by Simon himself—who made his appearance at the other side, and explained to me that the ferryman wished me to get out, as the water at the ferry was as high as his thigh, and would come into the gharry and wet me. And so we forded the Burakur River, the carriage being pushed and dragged over a rude bed of sand by a band of coolies. The pace is good when the horses do start the stages are only about five miles long, and the driver goes at full speed, but the quadrupeds are painful to look upon. At two o'clock arrived in Nemeaghaut, and found two officers in possession of the bungalow, who shared their rations with me.

The country is changing its character, and rises into broken hills and tumuli covered with brush and scrub, which seem to assume a mountainous character in front of us. Dark clouds rest on the range of hills which bound the western horizon. At seven o'clock, as we toil up the Parisnath hills, we enter the very heart of the thunder-storm-the darkness is profound