CHAPTER XVII

I sail for India—Kandy—Dangerous Playmates—I arrive at Murree

My father accompanied me to Portsmouth in the winter of 1873, where the troopship in which I was to sail for India was lying. We had first to touch at Queenstown, to embark a line regiment which had been ordered to Ceylon, and had a very unpleasant crossing, nearly everyone on board being ill. I had to share a cabin with two other sub-lieutenants, who joined the ship at Queenstown. One of them, named Basil Montgomery, was in my own regiment, having recently been transferred from the Highland Light Infantry. He was very tall, for which reason he was nicknamed “Longfellow” on board. The name of the other sub-lieutenant, who belonged to the 16th Lancers, was Babington, which, owing to his somewhat youthful appearance, was promptly abbreviated to “Baby.” I myself duly received the sobriquet of “Julie,” as Montgomery declared I was in the habit of murmuring this name in my dreams. It was that of a young lady whom I have mentioned in my book, “Society Recollections in Paris and Vienna,” and whom I had lately met frequently in society in Paris.

The cabin we occupied was very small, and contained only one wash-basin, so we had to dress and wash one at a time; but we soon got used to this inconvenience.

Montgomery and Babington were both excellent fellows, and I was soon on very friendly terms with them, as I was also with another sub-lieutenant of the 16th Lancers, named Taaffe. Taaffe was very musical, having a good voice and playing the concertina capitally. The daughter of the colonel of the line regiment we had on board, an extremely pretty and very impressionable damsel of seventeen, fell very much in love with him, and they used to sing duets together, to the accompaniment of Taaffe’s concertina.

We had fine weather in the Bay of Biscay, where it is usually so rough, for which we were thankful. At Gibraltar we merely stopped for an hour to coal, but at Malta we stayed long enough for everyone to go on shore. Many of us dined at the Club and went to the Opera afterwards, which I thought very fair. The climate of Malta seemed delightful, but the town did not strike me as pretty.

Not long after leaving Malta, bad weather and a dense fog came on, and something went wrong with the machinery, so that the captain did not know where we were. He was so alarmed that he ordered the chaplain to read the prayers for those in peril at sea, as at any moment he thought the ship might run on a rock. Happily, the machinery was repaired, and at the end of three days the weather improved, and the danger was over.

At Port Said most of the officers went ashore, and some of them visited a gambling-house which bore a very evil reputation, an officer belonging to the 16th Lancers having been stabbed there the year before. Taaffe and I were among those who went, though Taaffe confessed to me that he felt rather nervous, fearing that some of the natives might recognize his uniform as that of the unfortunate officer’s regiment.

At Ismailia we caught sight of M. de Lesseps, who sent an invitation to the ship, inviting six of us to visit him. Many of the officers thought that I ought to go, as I was the only one who could speak French; but this suggestion was overruled, and it was decided that the six must be chosen by seniority. As not one of them could speak French, and M. de Lesseps did not understand English, the interview must have proved a somewhat comic affair; at any rate, the six maintained a suspicious silence about it on their return.

Soon after we had passed through the Red Sea, which did not prove nearly so hot as we had expected, I fell ill with scurvy, and the doctor who attended me advised me to sleep in the passage near the ladies’ saloon, as the air was purer. However, an old dame objected to my sleeping so near the ladies, so the doctor got me a cabin to myself. On our arrival at Colombo, where the line regiment was disembarked, he obtained leave for me to go to Kandy and remain there until the ship sailed for Bombay.

While at Kandy, I went with Taaffe, who had joined me there, and two ladies to see the beautiful garden of Paradhenia, which is said to be the original garden of Paradise. We were all amazed at its beauty; the tropical plants and the vegetation being indescribably lovely. While walking in the high grass, one of the ladies was bitten by leeches, which crawled up her legs and frightened her terribly. She was fortunate, however, not to have been bitten by something much more objectionable, as we afterwards learned that it was very dangerous to walk in the high grass, as it was infested by snakes, some of which were most venomous.

The grandeur of the scenery at Kandy and the wonderful vegetation enchanted us, as we had never seen anything to compare with it; it was indeed quite a paradise upon earth. The climate was also delicious, and even in the middle of the day the heat could not be called oppressive, while the mornings and evenings were truly delightful. The residents, however, told us that it was very trying to the health, as it never varied in the least, summer or winter. The scenery between Colombo and Kandy was in parts most exquisite, and the brilliant colouring of the flowers, which were of every imaginable hue, made one almost believe oneself in fairyland.

Having embarked the infantry battalion which had been relieved by the one we had brought from England, we sailed from Colombo, but after proceeding some little way along the coast, the troopship stopped for half an hour, to enable an officer who had to join his regiment to embark in a launch which came out to fetch him. This officer took with him by mistake a lady’s trunk containing her dresses and underclothing, instead of his own, packed with his kit, which he left for the lady. The latter was in despair, particularly when informed that she was unlikely to receive any news of her property for six weeks at least.

After a voyage of six weeks, we reached Bombay, and, after a little trouble at the Custom House over some Turkish cigarettes which I had brought with me, and upon which, to my surprise, I was obliged to pay duty, proceeded, with some other officers, to Watson’s Hotel. At “Watson’s,” which I found very expensive indeed, I met Viscount Baring, of the Rifle Brigade, who had been at Eton with me. He told me that he was now on the Viceroy’s Staff, and had come to Bombay to purchase some Arab horses for Lord Northbrook. Although it was winter, the heat was very great in Bombay, which I found very uninteresting, and, after a stay of two or three days, I set out for Murree, in the hills in the North-West Provinces, where my regiment was stationed.

I had as a travelling companion for the first part of the journey a Staff-officer named Parker, who, on our arrival at Mean Meer, invited me to accompany him to the house of his brother-in-law, a judge, where I was most hospitably entertained, and tasted for the first time a real Indian curry, which I thought delicious. From Mean Meer I took the train to Rawal Pindi, in the Punjab. On my arrival, I went to the dâk bungalow, where soon afterwards I received a visit from a lieutenant in my regiment named Beauclerk, a son of Lord Amelius Beauclerk. He was an exceedingly good-looking young man, with fair hair and moustache and a very pleasant manner, and was most kind, offering me a room which he had at his disposal and inviting me to dine with him in the evening. After dinner I was rather astonished at seeing his syce walking in front of his master’s pony with a long stick, having at the end of it several bells, which he moved about in the grass. I asked the reason of this, when I was told that it was to frighten away the snakes, of which there were a great many poisonous ones hereabouts. Beauclerk told me that, a few nights earlier, he was dining with a Mrs. Kinloch, the wife of a captain in our regiment, when he saw a cobra quite close to her. She was playing the piano at the time, and the snake was evidently quite fascinated by the music. Fearing lest, if she moved, the snake might bite her, he told her to continue playing, and then, picking up a stick which happened to be near him, hit the cobra on the head and killed it. He said that there was another very dangerous snake called a kerite, which, though very small, was most venomous, and that Mrs. Kinloch had found one quite recently in her bed. Happily, she discovered it before it had a chance to bite her.

Beauclerk told me that I ought to call upon Captain Kinloch, who, having passed through the Staff College, was at that time Acting Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General at Rawal Pindi. I did so, and was informed that Mrs. Kinloch only was at home. On being shown into the drawing-room, I was somewhat astonished to find a little girl there, playing with two panther-cubs, who snarled and showed their teeth at me. I asked the child whether she were not afraid of them, to which she answered:—

“Oh, no, not at all!” and, opening the mouth of one of the cubs, thrust her hand into it.

I began to feel quite alarmed for her safety, and was not a little relieved when her mother made her appearance upon the scene.

Mrs. Kinloch was a very pretty young woman, with auburn hair and eyes of a greyish-blue colour. She told me that the panther-cubs had been captured by her husband a few days before, after he had shot the mother.

“Are they not lovely?” she exclaimed enthusiastically. “So beautifully marked in reddish-yellow and black, with such fascinating yellow and brown eyes. It is delightful to watch them.”

I replied that they were certainly very handsome and graceful animals, but that, nevertheless, I could not understand her allowing her daughter to have such dangerous playmates.

To this she rejoined that she did not consider there was the slightest danger, so long as you were not afraid of them, adding:—

“My little girl is not the least afraid.”

The little girl was caressing the cubs at the time, while the animals were snarling and showing their long, pointed teeth, though whether in play or not I could not say, as I was not sufficiently acquainted with their ways.

Captain Alexander Kinloch, who was a nephew of Sir Alexander Kinloch, was, I may here remark, the most famous sportsman in India at that time, and had written a celebrated book on big game shooting in India and Tibet, which was considered to be the standard work on the subject. When I met him afterwards, he told me many interesting things about Tibet, from which he had brought a fine collection of sporting trophies. Amongst them were several specimens of the ibex, which is found on the summits of the highest mountains, and to “bag” one of which is considered the greatest feat a sportsman can accomplish in India, since to approach within rifle-shot of it often entails the greatest risk to life.

During the few days I remained at Rawal Pindi, I made the acquaintance of Colonel Montgomery-Moore, then commanding the 4th Hussars, and his wife, the Hon. Mrs. Montgomery-Moore, a daughter of Lord Seaton, to whom I had brought an introduction from my cousin, Emily Cathcart. They invited me to dinner, when they were most anxious to hear all the latest news from England, as they had been in India for some time. They were most kind and agreeable, and the colonel gave me some valuable information about Murree.

There was no railway to Murree, and travellers generally made the first part of the journey from Rawal Pindi by carriage, and the rest in a _jampan_ (a kind of sedan-chair) as the road through the mountains was far too narrow and precipitate to admit of wheel traffic. I accordingly hired a carriage, and set off, but at a dâk bungalow, where I stopped to dine, I met a man, who, on hearing that I was on my way to Murree, offered to lend me a grey Arab which he was riding, observing that it would be a more pleasant way of making the journey than by _jampan_, and promising to send my luggage after me. I thanked him and accepted his offer, though, as he was a complete stranger to me, I could not help feeling some misgivings as to his intentions, for, if he had a mind to make off with my luggage, there was nothing to prevent him.

The road which I had to traverse was very steep and in places almost impassable, but the Arab appeared well accustomed to the country and as sure-footed as a goat. I had, however, a few decidedly unpleasant moments, when, at a very narrow part of the road, where there was a precipice on one side, we met some buffaloes, as I thought they might take into their heads to charge us. But they happened to be quite peaceably disposed, and we got safely past them. It was late in the evening when I reached Murree, which I found covered with snow, as it stands 7,500 feet above sea level, and no greater contrast with the plains and Rawal Pindi, where the weather had been quite like summer, could be conceived. I made my way to the officers’ quarters, where I was given a room, and my horse well looked after. I had received instructions from the Arab’s owner to send him back to the dâk bungalow. This I did the following day, in the course of which my luggage arrived quite safely, not a little, I must frankly admit, to my relief.