We went to Kumaon by the most direct route through Futtygurh and Bareilly. We returned by a longer route viâ Meerut and Delhi. Our difficulties on our way back were somewhat different, but they were quite as great as on our upward journey. Some of the streams we had to cross were not fordable, and we had great difficulty in getting ourselves ferried over. A few nights were spent in exceeding discomfort, our carts not having come up with our tents, and we were shelterless and supperless—rather, if I may coin such a word, dinnerless. One night cover was got for my wife and children, but a missionary brother and myself remained out all night, with no possibility of obtaining rest, as a pack of jackals were gorging themselves on the carcase of a bullock, and making the most hideous noises. As the night was cold, and we had no bedding, it was perhaps well the jackals were there, as otherwise we might have been tempted to lie down on the bare ground, which we could not have done with safety to our health. When once we got to the Trunk Road, which we had from Delhi to Benares, our travelling difficulties were at an end, and we got on most comfortably.
At Delhi our tents were pitched in an open space near the house of Mr. Thompson, for many years the Baptist missionary in that city, whose widow and daughters were afterwards so barbarously murdered by the mutineers in 1857. With him and his family, and with some other Christian friends there, we had much pleasant intercourse during the few days we remained. We of course saw the sights of the grand old imperial city—the Juma Musjid said to be the largest mosque in Asia, a most commanding building on a small rocky elevation, to which you ascend by a lofty flight of steps, and which has a most magnificent court paved with granite inlaid with marble; the palace, so far as it was open to visitors; the Chandnee Chauk, the great open street and market-place with a fine stream of water flowing through it; and, at the distance of a few miles from the city, the remarkable tower, the Kootub Minar, 240 feet high, erected by the Muhammadan conquerors who first made Delhi their capital. For miles around there are ruins of mosques, mausoleums, palaces, and splendid mansions. For a description of Delhi, as for the description of Agra, I must refer my readers to Bishop Heber's Journal.
During this journey to and from Kumaon we carried on, so far as circumstances permitted, the missionary work I have already mentioned. Our experience while prosecuting this tour so closely resembled that of which I have already given an account, that it is unnecessary to enter into details.
CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY.
As on our visit to Agra in 1842-43, so on these journeys of 1847 we met with the greatest kindness from our missionary brethren, some of whom we had afterwards the privilege of entertaining at Benares. It mattered not whether they were Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Baptist, English, Continental, or American (at that time there were no Methodist missions in Northern India), we received a cordial welcome, and though formerly unknown to each other we at once felt at home. We sometimes felt in much need of help, and it was most readily afforded. To some other Christian friends we met our grateful acknowledgments are due.