The Star of India

EDWARD S. ELLIS, A.M.
CHICAGO: M. A. DONOHUE & CO.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1888.
By Edward S. Ellis, A.M.
TO MY CHILDREN LILLIAN, WILMOT, MIRIAM AND HELEN, Each a Star of India to me, THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED.
INDEX.
CHAPTER.

THE STAR OF INDIA.
One morning in the month of April, 1857, Baird Avery, an assistant surgeon in the employ of the Honorable East India Company, was on his way to Delhi, the ancient capital of the Emperors of Hindostan, and at that time the residence of the royal pauper known as the Great Mogul of the Empire.
The distance which the young gentleman had to travel was near one thousand miles, and he was fairly upon the frightful hot season, during which the thermometer creeps up day after day to over one hundred in the shade, and stands at one hundred and forty in the flaming sun.
Avery left the metropolis of British India on the Hooghly nearly two months before, and had traveled leisurely to the northwest since that time. Most of his journey was made by the Ganges in a budgerow, a craft of some fifty tons burden, one half of which consists of a decked cabin, several small rooms and awning. The front of the vessel was occupied the crew, including a manjee, or steersman, and eight dandies or boatmen, whose duties were to work the sails, or row or drag the vessel as necessity required.