An officer who is now a Brevet-Colonel and has since served in Egypt, in East Africa, and in Natal, writes thus:
"I have seen a good deal of active service, but nowhere have I met any officer, either of high or low rank, who more completely gave himself up to ensure the comfort of the troops under his command than the dear General. Nothing escaped his eagle eye: at one moment we were arranging that some picket should protect itself better against the wind and rain; at the next the General was showing how a shelter should be run up over the tent of some sick officer, to protect him from the heat of the or describing how better troughs could be for watering horses or mules.
"As to road-making, the General was unsurpassed. From the very commencement of the expedition he realised that good communications must be ensured; and made our brigade work as I have never seen any troops work, except Egyptian troops on the railway in the Soudan. Morning, noon, and night did every available man slave away at bettering the wild mountain paths which were our only link with our supplies and civilisation. The country supplied absolutely nothing but a little hill grass obtainable in some districts, which meant that every grain of food had to be laboriously carried up."
It is evident that the care of 3,000 men in such a country was no light work; and Gatacre, who never took his work lightly even at home, certainly did not spare himself on service. His own letters give such a good idea of the routine of camp life, and of the spirit of genuine pleasure in it all that was so characteristic of him, that they shall tell their own tale.
"We are marching all day over the most impossible ground. Our food comes up at about 10 o'clock at night. Last night, owing to the badness of the track, it never came in at all, and this morning I hear it is still four miles off, the other side of the pass: this means another eight hours! Talk about roads, you never saw such a country! You approach a range of hills 10,000 ft. high, you have to cut a road for the animals before you attempt to bring them up, and this means time. Every now and then they have to stop and clear away these creatures who stalk us and shoot from behind rocks. We have been very fortunate in losing no men, though we have knocked over a good many of them."
*****
"Yesterday we were soaked with rain twice, had difficulty about wood for cooking, all green and soaked with wet; but everybody got in by 10 p.m. except about fifty mules and a company of Goorkhas who were stopped by the road falling away and some mules falling through about 300 yards down the khud. This of course stopped the remainder there for the night, but we got them some food, and they had to bivouac the night there without fire or blankets. We got them on this morning.
"Is it not marvellous? Out of my whole force of four regiments, a battery, and a company of Sappers, I have no sick men; they march all day, making roads, constantly get wet through, often have to sleep at great elevations. We were 8,700 ft. the night before last, without blankets, and yet they are all quite fit: no sick officer or man. Of course we take all the care we can of them.
"Yesterday after passing over the pass we found on the hills along which the road ran all English flowers—narcissus, iris, lilies (they plant them on their graves), may, hawthorn, hyacinths, tulips, in great profusion. The country is magnificent, soil very rich, would grow anything; we must take the country and improve it. It is another Kashmir."