to England, and a sojourn of some twelve
months in my native air, that I was able to
rejoin my regiment. From the day of poor
Johnsone's death, until I was at the head-quarters
of the corps and fit for duty once more, a period
of nearly two years elapsed.

The next experience I had of Asiatic cholera
occurred about three years after I had rejoined my
regiment, and is so extraordinary that I almost
hesitate to tell the story. I had been sent down
from one of the far north-west stations of those
days to Allahabad, there to take charge of some
fifty recruits that had arrived for our regiment
from England. They had landed at Calcutta, and
had been marched up country to Allahabad, but
the officer in charge of them was taken ill, and
was ordered back to the Presidency by the medical
men, I being sent to relieve him. I reached
Allahabad, found everything ready, and started
the following morning on our march up country.
We got over the regular number of miles every
day, and halted every Sunday according to general
orders. The weather was cool enough to be agreeable,
the two young officers that had come out
from England with the recruits were gentlemanly
lads, and a very agreeable man, a surgeon of the
Company's service who was in medical charge
of the party, made up a pleasant dinner-party of
four every evening. There was no lack of game
—antelope, wild-duck, teal, and partridges—
either along the road, or so near that we
could get some shooting every day. My
order of march was as follows. The réveillé
bugle sounded every morning at three A.M. The
native cook-boys had strict orders to prepare
before that hour a large copper of good strong
coffee, so that each man should have his quarter
of a pint before starting, and eat a piece of
biscuit as he drank it. At four the second
bugle sounded, the men fell in, the roll was
called, and off we marched at once. For the
first hour I always walked at the head of the
small column, so as to see that the pace was
not too quick, and kept up about three and a
half miles an hour. At the end of each hour
I halted for ten minutes, and as the marches
along the great Trunk Road of the north-west
provinces are very seldom more than twelve
miles long, I managed always to get the men
well under cover of their tents by eight o'clock.
At the first halt I always had prepared for the
men a drink, of which three-fourths was water,
and one-fourth commissariat rum. This was to
prevent their drinking the water at the roadside,
which is generally most unwholesome. My
arrangements proved so far good, that when we
arrived at Cawnpore, which is thirty marches
from Allahabad, we had only one sick man, and
he was laid up with a severe strain. Not wanting
the recruits to break loose and get drinking
amongst the regiments stationed at Cawnpore,
I did not halt there, but pushed on the day
after our arrival. I was very anxious to bring
the whole party to head-quarters without the
loss of a single man, and had from previous
experience learnt how very easily even the most
healthy recruits become ill, and how very quickly
they die on their way up the country. I
thought of nothing, day or night, but how to
prevent illness in my detachment. All that our
doctor—a most sensible practical man, with
twelve years' experience in the country—
recommended I adopted, and for a long time
everything went so well that I began to hope
we would reach our destination without any
serious sickness; but I was doomed to be
disappointed.

It must have been four or five days after
leaving Cawnpore, and somewhere about a third
of the road between that station and Meerut,
that the following extraordinary incident
occurred. We made the usual halt at the end of
the first hour, and whilst the cook-boys were mixing
the grog for the men, some of the latter asked
leave to go to a rising ground about twelve
hundred yards off, to look at an European monument
which was erected there, probably the spot
where some unfortunate officer on his road up
the country, had died and been buried. I gave
the required leave, and some half dozen
recruits started, laughing and joking with each
other as they went along. When the ten
minutes' halt was ended, I told the bugler to
sound, so as to warn them we were about to
start, and, as they did not come back, I desired
him to repeat the call. He did so, but still the
men did not come back. I took out my glass
to see whether they were there, and saw them
all sitting, or rather lying, down near the
monument. The bugler sounded again, but
they took no notice whatever of the call.
One of them seemed to stagger to his feet,
move a step or two, and then sit down again.
Their conduct appeared so extraordinary, that I
at once came to the conclusion that they had
somehow or other got hold of liquor, and had
drunk themselves stupid. Yet there was not a
village, or even a house, anywhere within sight.
I at once despatched a sergeant with men to see
what was the matter, and a couple of litters or
doolies to bring those who were too much
intoxicated to walk. To my great astonishment,
no sooner did the second party arrive near the
monument, than they too sat down—sergeant,
recruits, native dooley-bearers and all—and
appeared incapable of moving, or at least of
standing. I sounded the bugle again, but they
made no sign whatever of coming. At last I
could see with my glass one of the doolie-
bearers making towards us. When he got near
enough to speak, he bellowed out that every
man that had gone up to the monument was
lying sick, vomiting, and being purged. By
this time we were all seriously alarmed for the
poor fellows. The doctor wanted to go at once
and see what was really the matter, but how to
bring them back when the doolie-bearers
appeared to be all sick, was the question.
Fortunately, a party of palkee-bearers who had
been carrying some travellers along the road,
and were now returning to their own village,
passed at this time. I stopped them, and an
offer of four annas (sixpence sterling) to each of
them to bring the men now round the monument