After Getting Through The Worst Of The Storm, We Pushed Along,
And Had Reached The Twentieth Mile-Stone, When, Catching A Flavour Of
Burning Wood, I Looked Out And Found The Wheel At An Angle Of Some 30
Degrees, And Rubbing Against The Side Preparatory To Taking Its Leave
Altogether.
Here was another effect of starting in an unpropitious
moment.
The interruption in the great forced march preyed heavily upon
our minds, but, on the principle of doing as "Rome does," we took
a lesson from the religion of "Islam," and concurring in the views
expressed by our attendant blacks, viz. that "whatever is written in
a man's destiny that will be accomplished," we ejaculated "Kismut"
with the rest, and resignedly adapted ourselves to the writings in
our own particular page of fate. Having sent back to Umballa the news
of our distress, a new conveyance in a few hours made its appearance;
and hauling it alongside the wreck, we unshipped the stores, reloaded,
and eventually reached "Thikanmajura" at eight A.M.
JUNE 3. - Starting at about three o'clock P.M., we found the
unpropitious moment still hanging over us: first a violent dust-storm,
and then a refractory horse, which bolted completely off the road,
and nearly upset us down a steep bank, proved to demonstration that
our star was still obscured.
About midnight we reached the river "Sutlej," and exchanged our horse
for four fat and humpy bullocks, who managed, with very great labour
and difficulty, to drag us through the heavy sands of the river-bed
down to the edge of the water. Here we were shipped on board a
flat-bottomed boat, with a high peaked bow; and, after an immensity
of hauling and grunting, we were fairly launched into the stream, and
poled across to the opposite shore. The water appeared quite shallow,
and the coolies were most of the time in the water; but its width,
including the sands forming its bed, could not have been less than two
miles and a half. It was altogether a wild and dreary-looking scene,
as we paddled along - the wild ducks and jackals, &c. keeping up a
concert on their own account, and the patient old bullocks ruminating
quietly on their prospects at our feet.
On arriving at what appeared to be the opposite bank, we were taken
out, and again pulled and hauled through the deep sand, only to be
reshipped again on what seemed a respectable river in its own right;
and here, getting out of patience with a stream that had no opposite
bank, I fell asleep, and left the bullocks to their sorrows and
their destiny.
JUNE 4. - Arrived at Jullundur, where we had to share the bungalow
with another traveller and a rising family, who kept us alive by
howling vigorously all day. The road from this being "Kucha," literally
UNCOOKED, but here meant to express "unmetalled," we had yet another
form of conveyance to make acquaintance with. It was a palkee, rudely
strapped upon the body of a worn-out "Dak garee;" and although a more
unpromising-looking locomotive perhaps never was placed upon wheels,
the actual reality proved even worse than the appearance foreboded.
Anybody who has happened to have been run away with in a dust-cart
through Fenchurch Street, or some other London pavement, the gas pipes
being up at the time, might form some idea of our sensations as we
pounded along, at full gallop, over some thirty miles of uneven,
UNCOOKED road; but to anybody who has not had this advantage,
description would be impossible. About half way, it appeared that
it was written in my miserable destiny that the off fore-wheel of my
shay was to come off, and off it came accordingly; so that once more
I became an involuntary disciple of Islam, and went to sleep among
the ruins, with rather a feeling of gratitude for the respite than
otherwise. On awaking, I found myself again under way; and effecting
a junction with my companion, we had a light supper off half a
water-melon; and, after crossing the River Beas by a bridge of boats,
and being lugged through another waste of sand by bullocks, we once
again reached a "cooked" road, and arrived at "Umritsur" at six A.M.
JUNE 5. - Found the heat so great here that we were unable to
stir out.
As a consolation, we received a visit from four "Sikh Padres," who
rushed in and squatted themselves down without ceremony, previously
placing a small ball of candied sugar on the table as a votive and
suggestive offering. The spokesman, a lively little rascal, with a
black beard tied up under his red turban, immediately opened fire, by
hurling at us all the names of all the officers he had ever met or read
of. The volley was in this style: First, the number of the regiment,
then Brown Sahib, Jones Sahib, Robinson Sahib, Smith Sahib, Tomkins
Sahib, Green Sahib, and so on, regiment after regiment and name after
name, his brother Padres occasionally chiming in in corroboration
of their friend's veracity and in admiration of his vast stock of
military information. After much trouble, we got rid of the pack,
at the price of one rupee, which was cheap for the amount of relief
afforded by their departure.
JUNE 6. - Reached Lahore at ten P.M. and had a night in bed, for
the third time only since leaving Cawnpore. The Q.M.G. being at once
set to work to make the necessary arrangements for our final start
for Cashmere, we paid a hurried visit to the Tomb of Runjeet Singh
and the Fort and City of Lahore. These were worth seeing, but they
abounded in sights and perfumes, which rendered the operation rather
a trying one, considering the very high temperature of the weather.
JUNE 7. - Drove out in a dilapidated buggy, and with an incorrigible
horse, to Mean Meer, the cantonments of Lahore.
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