I must not omit informing you, that my good friend the Colonel, with whom I enlisted in Dublin, used to pay me a visit frequently; and finding me in better health and spirits than formerly, he told the doctor to let me want for nothing which could be of service to me. The doctor then inquired very particularly into my case. I told him the blood had left me, and that my mouth was rather better. He ordered me a pint of wine every day, and a bit of fowl for dinner. In a word, by the blessing of God, I got a good deal better, and left the hospital upon the 9th November; but I had not been at my duty many days, when an order came for seven companies to go to Madras, by a frigate and two country ships, which were ready for us in the bay. We embarked upon the 25th November, the staff and light company went on board of La Dedaigneuse, a frigate formerly taken from the French; and the rest of the regiment (except two companies left at the island) went on board of the two country ships. We had a very rough passage, having high winds, swelling seas, and a leaky ship; and being exposed to the weather, as we took our watch upon deck in turns, I was again seized with a severe flux. The Colonel, seeing me one day on deck, inquired very kindly how I was? I told him the truth; and he was very angry that I should expose myself in such weather, especially after my late severe illness. I made the best apology I could, but he was not satisfied, and desired me to go to the surgeon and let my case be known. He likewise asked me what liquor I received? I told him half a pint of arrack daily; but I said that I did not think that it was agreeing with me. So he spoke to the doctor, who ordered me a pint of wine in place of it, and to keep myself constantly below. The frigate, as I have stated above, was very leaky; and having to encounter a dreadful hurricane during four nights and days, it was with difficulty that the crew, with the assistance of the soldiers, could keep her afloat. We were three weeks upon this passage without any deaths, except one man who fell overboard; but it was indeed a very disagreeable voyage, for we could not keep our provisions from getting wet by the sea rushing in between every plank! You may think it strange that one of his Majesty's ships of war was suffered to be in this leaky condition; but it would have taken a very tight vessel indeed to have ridden this storm without making a considerable quantity of water; and, moreover, she was ordered for dock as soon as she reached the harbour.
The manner of landing persons on this coast may not be unworthy of the reader's attention. The best boats belonging to his Majesty's navy dare not venture through the prodigious surf that runs every where on the beach, and you may often see the captains of the Indiamen or Men-of-war, obliged to leave their elegant boats and fine-dressed crews outside the surf, and get on board of what are called Massulah boats, to be rowed ashore by natives. These boats are constructed nearly like our own, but are considerably deeper. The planks are sewed together by small cocoa-nut ropes, instead of being nailed, and they are caulked by the cocoa-nut hemp (if I may call it so) of which the ropes are made.
When the passengers are all seated, the boatmen begin their rowing, which they accompany with a kind of song, until they approach the breakers, when the boatswain gives the alarm, and all is activity among the rowers; for if they did not pay great attention to avoid the wave in the act of breaking, the boat would run every risk of being swamped. The most severe part of the boat's usage is when she strikes the beach the first time, which generally tumbles the passengers upon one another like a heap. The boatmen must not attempt to jump out and pull her ashore after the first breaker, for the wave that makes her strike runs past a considerable distance, and then returns, rushing down the declivity of the beach with irresistible force, carrying her along with it; but before the next wave overtakes them the boat has gained a little by rowing, so that the second shock is less formidable; and, on the third, they jump out in a moment, and lay hold on a rope fastened to the bow on purpose, and thereby hold her fast till the passengers get ashore. Were our boats to get such usage it would knock them to staves.
After our landing, we were encamped upon the south esplanade, which divides Fort St. George from the original town of Madras.
CHAPTER V.
I do not here intend to give a particular account of Madras; but as your curiosity may be somewhat excited, I will gratify it a little, by giving you a kind of general description. Madras, or Fort St. George, (sometimes distinguished into Black Town and White Town,) the principal settlement of the British, on the coast of Coromandel, has a very beautiful appearance from the sea; and the first sight of this place is not calculated to spoil the picture which a sanguine imagination draws to itself. The clear, blue, cloudless sky, and the polished white buildings, of which there is a great number, both in the Fort and along the beach, present a combination entirely new to the British traveller, which is well fitted to give him a very exalted idea of India, and lead him to imagine, after being so long out of the sight of land, that he is entering a new world, something far superior to that which he has left. But it is with this as with the work of the painter; for it looks best at a distance. That part of the town which is within the fortress can boast indeed of several fine streets; and the houses being covered with a kind of stucco, called chunam, which is capable of a polish little inferior to marble, have a very elegant and lively appearance: but as to the houses of the original town, sometimes called by the natives, Madras Patnam, (which signifies superior,) no rule seems to have been followed but that of contrast; for the fine white polished buildings of the European, the Persian, or the Indian merchant, are promiscuously interspersed with the most wretched mud-walled cocoa-nut covered huts of the poorest native: and the confused, irregular, unpaved streets, render it one of the dirtiest places possible in wet weather. There are a number of meeting-houses here for the various religious professors; but that which has the most respectable appearance, (the protestant church of Fort St. George excepted,) belongs to the Armenians. The appearances of the natives also are extremely varied; and we find it hold good here, as in other parts of the world, "that the poor and the rich meet together;" for we here see some carried in palanquins shoulder high, and others performing all the offices of drudgery; while some are riding in their bullock coaches, others are walking on foot, following their various employments; while some are riding upon horses, well clothed, with ear-rings the circumference of a large tea-cup, others are hardly able to walk, but literally, "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." That feature in the female character which has been general in all ages, is also very prominent in this place: for we find many of the wealthy of that sex adorned with all the varieties of toys mentioned by the prophet, "walking with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes; walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;" but it is the less to be wondered at, that these poor creatures should take such a pride in showing themselves off, as they think, with these butterfly ornaments; for they know no better: but it is truly a pity, as well as a great sin, that the daughters of Zion in our own land should so far follow their example, and expose themselves to the judgments of the Lord for the sake of a few trinkets, as those women did in the days of the prophet. Because it is very evident, that it was the sin which these daughters of Zion contracted, by setting their affections upon these vanities of ornaments, that was the cause of God denouncing his judgments against them. It would surely be infinitely better, to adorn themselves according to the direction of the apostle; "whose adorning," said he, "let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and wearing of gold, or putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price."
While our regiment lay at Madras, we were infested by the natives offering themselves for servants, and many of them did get into place; but, I believe those that took them would have been much better without servants, for they plundered them of what they could get, and then went their way[2].
We lay in camp upon the south esplanade until the 20th, when we got the route for Wallajahbad. This being our first march in the country, we had our provisions and baggage carried free, but very few of us thought much of the meat, and less of the liquor; for the arrack used to be standing all night in cocoa-nut shells, and spilled upon the ground in the morning when we marched. It would have been well for the far greater part of our regiment, had this indifference to that liquor continued; but, alas! it was far otherwise, as I yet may have cause to observe.
We came to Wallajahbad upon the 24th December, 1807. This place was to us according to its name, for it proved very bad to our regiment; the men, women, and children, dying almost every day. As fife-major of the regiment, it was part of my duty to warn a fifer for the funeral party always upon evening parade, for the following day; and there were twelve days successively that the fifer for the funeral was wanted. Although there were none dead at the time, I ordered him to be in readiness; and for that space of time, we never missed one day without having less or more paying the debt of nature. If a man died at night, he was buried in the morning; and if through the day, he was interred in the evening. Amongst the many that died at this time, my old musical friend Allan was one. He was cut off by water in the head; but the disorder that carried off almost all the rest was the bloody flux, or dysentery.
About this time the grenadier company (which had parted with us upon our voyage to get their ship refitted) joined us[3], and also the two companies from Prince of Wales's Island. The grenadiers were, in general, envied by the rest of the regiment for their healthy appearance; but, alas! that did not long continue; for no less than twenty-one of these robust looking men went the way of all living in the course of one month.