Chapter Viii

CHAPTER VIII INDIA time was now come for us to embark for the East. THEWe sailed from Southampton in a trooper carrying about 1,200 men, and after a voyage of twenty-three days cast anchor in Bombay Harbour and pulled up the curtain on what might well have been a different planet. It may be imagined how our whole shipful of officers and men were delighted after being cooped up for nearly a month to see the palms and palaces of Bombay lying about us in a wide crescent. We gazed at them over the bulwarks across the shining and surf-ribbed waters. Every one wanted to go on shore at once and see what India was like. The de and formalities of disembarkation which oppress the or lays AngloBoerWar.com dinary traveller are multiplied for those who travel at the royal expense. However, at about three o'clock in the after noon orders were issued that we were to land at eight o'clock it in a of when would be cool 5 and the meantime proportion officers might go ashore independently. A shoal of tiny boats had been lying around us all day long, rising and falling with the swell. We eagerly summoned some of these. It took about a quarter of an hour to reach the quays of the Sassoon I the motion of the Dock. Glad was to be there j for lively skiff to which I and two friends had committed ourselves was fast becoming our main preoccupation. We came along side of a great stone wall with dripping steps and iron rings for hand-holds. The boat rose and fell four or five feet with the surges. I put out my hand and grasped at a ring; but be fore I could get my feet on the steps the boat swung away, giving my right shoulder a sharp and peculiar wrench. I scrambled up all right, made a few remarks of a general character, mostly beginning with the earlier letters of the 101 A ROVING COMMISSION alphabet, hugged my shoulder and soon thought no more about it. Let me counsel my younger readers to beware of dislo cated shoulders. In this, as in so many other things, it is the first step that counts. Quite an exceptional strain is required to tear the which holds the shoulder capsule joint together $ but once the deed is done, a terrible liability remains. Al though my shoulder did not actually go out, I had sustained an which was to last me life which was to injury my 5 cripple me at polo, to prevent me from ever playing tennis, and to be a grave embarrassment in moments of peril, violence and effort. Since then, at irregular intervals my shoulder has dislocated on the most unexpected pretexts: sleeping with my arm under the pillow, taking a book from the library shelves, slipping on a staircase, swimming, etc. Once it very nearly went out through a too expansive gesture in the House of Commons, and I thought how astonished the members would have been to see the to whom AngloBoerWar.comspeaker they were listening, suddenly for no reason throw himself upon the floor in an instinctive effort to take the strain and lever age off the displaced arm bone. This accident was a serious piece of bad luck. However, you never can tell whether bad luck may not after all turn out to be good luck. Perhaps if in the charge of Omdurman I had been able to a use sword, instead of having to adopt a modern like weapon a Mauser pistol, my story might not so far have got as the telling. One must never forget when misfortunes come that it is quite possible they are saving one from much worse or that something 5 when you make some it great mistake, may very easily serve you better than the best-advised decision. Life is a whole, and luck is a whole, and no part of them can be separated from the rest. Let us resume our journey into what Colonel Brabazon in his farewell had speech called 'India, that famous appanage of the Bwitish Cwown.' We were sent into a rest camp at and Poona, arriving late in the evening passed our second 102 I NDIA night after landing in large double-fly tents upon a spacious plain. Daylight brought suave, ceremonious, turbanned ap plicants for the offices of butler, dressing boy, and head groom, which in those days formed the foundation of the cavalry subaltern's household. All bore trustworthy testi with them from the monials home-going regiment $ and after brief formalities and salaams laid hold of one's worldly possessions and assumed absolute responsibility for one's whole domestic life. If you liked to be waited on and re lieved of home worries, India thirty years ago was perfec tion. All you had to do was to hand over all your uniform and clothes to the dressing boy, your ponies to the syce, and your money to the butler, and you need never trouble any each of these ministers more. Your Cabinet was complete 5 entered upon his department with knowledge, experience and fidelity. They would devote their lives to their task. For a humble wage, justice, and a few kind words, there was noth they would not do. Their world became bounded by the ing AngloBoerWar.com commonplace articles of your wardrobe and other small possessions. No toil was too hard, no hours were too long, no dangers too great for their unruffled calm or their unfail ing care. Princes could live no better than we. Among the group of suitors at our tent appeared two or three syces leading polo ponies and bearing notes from their masters} and then arrived with some commotion a splendid man in a red and gold frock-coat bearing an envelope with a puissant crest. He was a messenger from the Governor, Lord Sandhurst, inviting me and my companion, Hugo Baring, to dine that night at Government House. Thither, after a long day occupied mainly in scolding the troopers for forgetting to wear their pith-helmets and thus risking their lives, we repaired, and enjoyed a banquet of glitter, pomp and iced champagne. His Excellency, after the health of the Queen-Empress had been drunk and dinner was over, was good enough to ask my opinion upon several matters, and considering the magnificent character of his hospitality, I 103 A ROVING COMMISSION in me not to thought it would be unbecoming reply fully. of British and Indian I have forgotten the particular points he counsel all I can remem affairs upon which sought my 5 indeed ber is that I responded generously. There were mo his views but ments when he seemed willing to impart own j I thought it would be ungracious to put him to so much he subsided. He sent his trouble j and very readily kindly aide-de-camp with us to make sure we found our way back hours to camp all right. On the whole, after forty-eight of intensive study, I formed a highly favourable opinion about India. Sometimes, thought I, one sees these things more c completely at first sight. As Kinglake says, a scrutiny so minute as to bring an object under an untrue angle of vision, is a poorer guide to a man's judgment than a sweeping glance which sees things in their true proportion.' We cer tainly felt as we dropped off to sleep the keenest realization of the great work which England was doing in India and of her mission to rule these but races high AngloBoerWar.comprimitive agreeable for their welfare and our own. But almost immediately, it seemed, the trumpets sounded reveille and we had to catch the 5.10 train for our thirty-six-hour journey to Bangalore. The great triangular plateau of Southern India comprises the domains of the Nizam and the Maharajah of Mysore. The tranquility of these regions, together about the size of France, is assured in the ultimate resort by two British gar risons of two or three thousand troops apiece at Bangalore and Secunderabad. In each case there is added about double the number of Indian so that sufficient forces of all troops 5 arms are permanently available for every purpose of train 1 ing and manoeuvre. The British lines or cantonments are in accordance with invariable practice placed five or six miles from the cities which the populous they guard j and in inter vening space lie the lines of the Indian regiments. The Brit ish troops are housed in large, cool, colonnaded barracks. Here forethought and order have been denied neither time Pronounced ccantoonments.' IO4 INDIA nor space in the laying out of their plans. Splendid roads, endless double avenues of shady trees, abundant supplies of water and pure j imposing offices, hospitals institutions} ample parade-grounds and riding schools characterize these centres of the collective life of considerable white communi ties. The climate of Bangalore, at more than 3,000 feet above sea level, is excellent. Although the sun strikes with torrid power, the nights except in the hottest months are cool and fresh. The roses of Europe in innumerable large pots at tain the highest perfection of fragrance and colour. Flowers, flowering shrubs and creepers blossom in glorious profusion. Snipe (and snakes) abound in the marshes, brilliant butter flies dance in the sunshine, and nautch-girls by the light of the moon. No quarters are provided for the officers. They draw in stead a lodging allowance which together with their pay and other incidentals fills each month with silver a AngloBoerWar.com rupees string net bag as big as a prize turnip.

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