I sallied forth in one of those coffin-like conveyances termed palanquins, to visit the city, which is about a mile distant from the fort, and extends along the banks of the river. Enormous store-houses and merchants' offices skirt the river; but the interior of the city, and especially that portion adjacent to the plain around Fort William contains several fine public buildings and extensive private mansions. The streets and squares are wide and handsome; but the bazaars and the portion of the town tenanted by natives are wretchedly narrow and confined, and usually thronged nearly to suffocation; for the natives love to huddle together in contradistinction to the whites, who seem even on this broiling and dreary side of the world to preserve that cold and forbidding demeanour which distinguishes the English in particular from other nations of the globe.
I believe the case was materially different a few years ago; but we found cause to remark, during our fortnight's sojourn in Calcutta, that we had experienced less hospitality and more incivility than in any other city of the world, not excepting even New York. The then revolution in the social system of the East has been attributed to the recent establishment of hotels in the city, but this appears more of a subterfuge than a palliation. The absence of the governor-general and commander-in-chief, who were at that time in the upper provinces, had drained Calcutta of the best of its population, as we were informed and afterwards experienced; and we therefore saw the place under unfavourable circumstances.
After a comfortless delay of a fortnight, in this city of contrasted luxury and indigence, we gladly received the route to march for our destination in the north-western provinces.
Having provided ourselves with tents, and bullock hackeries for the conveyance of them and our baggage, we left Calcutta about sunrise on the 4th January, and marched along the banks of the river, through avenues of cocoa-nut and palm trees, to our first encampment, a distance of about ten miles.
Our party mustered nearly five hundred strong, and included detachments for all of her Majesty's regiments in the upper provinces. Both officers and privates were, almost to a man, commencing their first march in India, or, to use an Indian expression, "griffins;" and in consequence many forebodings had been uttered, in Calcutta, of depredations, blunders, and miseries we were to encounter: "mais il est plus facile d'être sage pour les autres, que de l'être pour soi-même," saith Rochefoucauld, and with truth, in the present instance, for we encountered few of the ills presaged by the Indian prophets, who had probably drawn their conclusions from sad experience.
The second morning we marched in the dark, and reached the river Hoogly about daylight. The transit occupied the greater portion of the day, having to unload the beasts of burden and convey the men and baggage in boats. The most interesting and novel sight to us was that of the huge elephants swimming across this broad and rapid river, with the mahout, or driver, standing or sitting on their necks. Immediately the elephant gets beyond his depth, his whole body and head disappear, and nothing is seen to mark his locale, save the head and shoulders of the mahout. The obedient monster performs the submarine passage with an occasional jerk of the head and trunk out of water, to take breath and see where he is going, although in the latter instance he is generally subservient to his driver.
Some accidents were nearly occurring from the elephants having been swept down by the current among the boats in which the troops were crossing, but the mahouts piloted their charges dexterously through the fleet, without a single collision.
After crossing the Hoogly, we marched, for the first few days, through a well cultivated country, but afterwards struck into a newly made road, lying amid thick low jungle, until we reached the Rajmahal hills, which in some places are thickly and prettily wooded, whilst the intervening plains and valleys diversify the scene with their irregular patches of Indian corn, sugar cane, and barley fields. The Rajmahal hills abound with bears, tigers, wild hog, and elephants; but all chance of sport in wild beast hunting was denied us; we had no shikar wallahs, or sporting elephants among our party; for in India it is quite as necessary—nay, more so—that the elephant should be a sporting character as the rider, for the uninitiated usually dread the sight of a wild beast, and at the critical moment of encounter the unhappy sportsman often finds himself involuntarily taking to an ignominious flight. It is impossible to beat the heavy coverts of this part of India, with a moderate chance of success, except on elephants. Our principal amusement during the whole march consisted in partridge and snipe shooting, and even these were exceedingly scarce in the neighbourhood of our camp; but this was on account of the distance we generally kept from the Ganges, the banks of which are well supplied with game. In fact, throughout India, game is rarely found anywhere save in the vicinity of rivers, theels, or inundated ground.
Our friends, the jackals, continued their nightly lamentations, varied occasionally by the deep bass of a bear, or hyæna's eccentric cry; but I heard of only one actual encounter between man and beast in the Rajmahals, which was between an infantry soldier and a bear, beside the stump of an old tree, which both approached, unconscious of each other's presence, to use as a seat. Having eyed one another with feelings of mutual aversion, they executed a chassée-croisée, and parted. When a bear is desirous of being on intimate terms with a man, he rears himself on his hind legs, and advances to embrace, but the cruel sportsman marks, with his keen eye, a white mark on the affectionate creature's breast, and repays the advance by a bullet sent through this vital spot—that is, if his hand be steady enough to execute the act of ingratitude.