18th.—To avoid the return of the accident of yesterday, this evening our vessels were lashed together; I went to my friend’s boat to see the poor boys, who were delirious; on my return I did not see that the hold of my boat was open; the shadows deceived me in the uncertain light, and meaning to jump from the railing of her vessel upon the deck of my own, I took a little spring, and went straight down the hold: falling sideways with my waist across a beam, the breath was beaten out of my body for a moment, and there I hung like the sign of the golden fleece. The people came to my assistance, and brought me up again; it was fortunate the beam stopped my further descent. I was bathed with hot water, and well rubbed with dēodar oil, which took off the pain and stiffness very effectually.
19th.—Anchored at Monghir; sent to the Sītā Khūnd, and bottled off a quantity of water for use on board ship; it keeps good for ever, that bright, beautiful, sparkling water from Sītā’s well; we had the precaution to bring corks with us.
The interview between Runjeet Singh and the Governor-General has taken place,—it must have been a fine sight; had I not been going to England I would have seen the meeting. Miss Eden presented Runjeet Singh with a picture of the Queen, painted by herself.
Extract from a letter dated December 3rd, 1838.
“I will endeavour to give you some idea of what is going forward in the grand army of the Indus. The day after our arrival Lord Auckland held a durbār, at which Runjeet Singh paid his visit; my squadron was on escort duty, so that I saw nothing, and was nearly crushed by the line of elephants. I heard two guns were drawn up in one of the tents to be presented to the Maharāj; between them shrapnell shot were piled so awkwardly, that Sir Henry and Runjeet stumbled over them, and very nearly pitched on their noses, and this will doubtless be considered a bad omen. On the 30th Lord Auckland returned the visit; our Regiment and the 2nd Cavalry formed the escort: we crossed the Sutlej over a bridge of boats to the Seik encampment, where 40,000 men are collected. The disposition of Runjeet’s troops was most judicious; the road was first lined with his regular cavalry, tall men, but miserably mounted; these were all dressed in scarlet, and looked tawdry and ridiculous: at the termination of this line of cavalry, which extended about a quarter of a mile, was a sandbank sufficiently high to obstruct all further view, except of the Zamburuks, who were placed on the elevation, and fired a salute from their camels as the Governor-General passed. Having ascended the bank, the view was indeed magnificent, and I question if such a pageant has been seen since the decline of the Moguls. The road was now lined with infantry to the arch leading to Runjeet’s tents, and before which the Maharāj’s line of elephants was drawn up magnificently caparisoned. The infantry were dressed in scarlet, with red turbans, three deep on one side, and two deep on the other: these are the tallest body of men I ever saw. I think in the front rank there could not have been a man under six feet, and several must have been four and six inches higher; some of the standard-bearers were perfect giants in height, the officers were superbly dressed, and I saw more than one wearing pearl epaulets. Only think of that; for the life of me I could not help wishing to let the right squadron amongst them for one little half hour. In the centre of this line of infantry, extending more than a quarter of a mile, the Governor-General and Runjeet met, and, after embracing, proceeded to the durbār. Having passed through the arch, we found ourselves in an enclosure formed by khanāts of about four acres, and in this Runjeet’s body-guard were assembled, dressed in new Kincab dresses, and as magnificent as silk, and gold, and embroidery, and sumptuous arms could make them. The tents were beautiful, made of the finest fabric of Cashmere, and such as could only belong to the lord of that enchanting valley. Runjeet differed much in appearance from what I had been led to expect. He is a little man, and appeared less from being seated between two such very tall men as Lord Auckland and Sir Henry Fane; he is very dark for a Seik, his face is rather full than otherwise, his beard grey, but far from white, the expression of his countenance is that of great cunning and intelligence, and constantly varying; and if you did not know his character, I think you would say there was no outward sign of determination.
“Runjeet was the only plainly-dressed man in his court; he wore a dress and turban of dark red, without jewels or ornaments of any description whatever, whilst his nobles were cased in superb cuirasses and choice armour, and were literally glittering with jewels, and oh! such shawls! no lady patroness of Almack’s in her wildest dreams ever imagined such a collection. Amongst the presents Runjeet has given to Lord Auckland is a gold bed,—may he sleep on it as sound as I do on my little charpoy!
“We have just returned from a grand review of the whole of the troops for Lord Auckland and Runjeet; all very fine, I hear, and we surpassed ourselves in a charge—Shavash! Shavash! Cawnpore is a water-meadow to this place, the clouds of dust would be incredible if we did not know we are advancing to Dust Mohamed’s country.
“This day week, it is said, we are to continue our march, but there are no supplies on the road for us. Shah Sūjah’s Contingent have advanced, and I fully expect to see them some fine morning coming back with at least a flea in their ear. Nobody knows what is to be done, only the first division under Sir W. Cotton marches forward, the second remains here as a reserve. No one seems to imagine there will be any fighting, but we shall march down to Shikarpore, and, I suppose, having secured the safe and free navigation of the Indus, march through Candahar, if the ruler of Cabul will not listen to the reasoning of our Government.
“The crowd at the durbār before mentioned, which took place on the 30th, was beyond bearing, and the band-master, who must be a wag, played ‘We met, ’twas in a crowd;’ and this was by far the best thing that transpired at the visit of the Lion of the Punjab, and the Governor-General of India.