BOOKS.

THE INDIAN SERVICES OR THE PEARL..

THE Pearl, the first commissioned of the new class of 21-gun in- tended made her trial trip in the spring of 1856, and was n- tended to take part in the third Baltic expedition ; but on the termination of the war with Russia her destination was changed to the Pacific. She arrived at Hongkong on the 19th June 1857, and the 15th of the following month she sailed for Calcutta along with Captain Peel's ship the Shannon, which carried Lord Elgin and three hundred marines lately arrived; whilst the Pearl took on board at Singapore two companies of the 90th Regiment wrecked in the notorious Transit. These succours reached Cal- cutta just in time to rescue it from the panic caused by the approach of the great Mohammedan festival, the Mohurrum, when it was expected that the fanatic Mussulmans and their Hindu confederates would rise to exterminate the Europeans. When this danger had passed away, Captain Peel started with his guns for Cawnpore, and Captain Sotheby of the Pearl, having also volunteered his services to the Government, was likewise sent up the Ganges. In all the range of country lying north-east of the great river from Patna upwards, and as far as to the con- fines of Nepaul, the lines before Lucknow were the only spot where a British force still kept its ground ; the rebels had pos- session of the rest, until it was reconquered from them by the Naval Brigade of the Pearl, numbering 250 men and four guns ; the Bengal Volunteer Cavalry; and Jung Bahadoor's Goorkhas. The degree in which these latter contributed to the result is very questionable.

The first battle with the rebels was fought on the 26th Decem- ber at Sohanpore, and was decided by the shells and rifles of the Brigade, for the Bengal Volunteers were not present, and though the Goorkhas behaved steadily enough, their old flint muskets did little execution against an enemy who never ventured nearer to them than four or five hundred yards. This manner of fighting was quite congenial to the feelings of the Goorkhas, and no doubt contributed much to the firmness of their bearing. The battle lasted three hours, and ended in the total rout of the rebels, whose number was estimated at 6000, of whom 1200 were regular sepahis, and 150 cavalry. The loss on our side was only a few wounded and our camp-follower killed. The moral effect of this cheaply purchased victory was very great ; the natives, who had expected to see our small force overwhelmed and the rich districts of Saran, Chunparun, and Tirhoot overrun by the rebels, were glad to make friends with the winning side ; confidence was restored, and dis- affected zemindars paid their rents in silence. In February the force moved up the Gogra in a fleet of boats, the strong fort of Chanderpore was taken with little difficulty, and that at Mon- rainee Ghat without a blow. On the 20th a battle was fought at Phoolpore ; it lasted an hour, and ended in the rout of the rebels, who had occupied the right bank of the Gogra for some days in presence of Jung Bahadoor's army, the capture of three guns, the destruction of their camp equipage, and the securing of the passage of the river. On this occasion the European force had been joined, we can hardly say strengthened, by an additional brigade of Goorkhas with a light field battery of six guns.

" The Gorkhas were commanded by their own regimental officers; but to each regiment there was one or more European officer in military charge who held a very anomalous, and by no means agreeable position, not being able to give orders, and being obliged to submit to much incon-

venience from their resistless determination to have their own way The enemy kept up a very heavy fire for some time from four or five guns, which was quickly responded to by the naval artillery under Lieutenant Turnour and by the guns of the Nepalese ; but among the Gorkhas no little confusion ensued. It is said to be their custom in action to rally round their guns. This probably arises from the fact that they place more confi- dence in their long range than in the close quarters required for the use of the bayonet. Without pretending to account for the fact with any degree of accuracy, it is, however, quite certain that in a short time after the commencement of the action few of them were to be seen in the line—in fact, they disappeared. Those on the left went over to the right, where the Gorkha Brigadier was commanding ; and after the first violence of the fire had a little abated, they might be seen returning stealthily to their ranks. The scene among the elephants which carried the spare ammunition might be regarded as amusing, if it had occurred on another less serious occasion. They roared, and snorted, blowing with their great proboscis, the mahouts, or drivers, using every effort to bring back and quiet them. They kicked them behind the ears as they sat astride on their necks, and hammered them violently on the skull with a great iron spike to bring them to a sense of duty ; they abused them, calling them insulting epithets, and by turns coaxed them with endearing terms—but all in vaintwo, after a little time, between the influence of alternate abuse and entreaty, became quieted and accustomed to the noise of the cannon, while the third ran off the field, and no exertion could induce him to return."

After this victory the Brigade expected to join the besiegers of Lucknow, but were ordered to make a retrogade movement into the district of Goruckpore. This was a sore disappointment to our tare, but it was allayed by the assurance that the post of honour was in the rear, there being 37,000 rebels in the vicinity of Fyzabad, and not 1500 troops left behind to meet them. Pro- bably also they were not sorry to part company with their captious and vapouring allies the Goorkhas, who objected to Jack's eating beef.

" Disputes arose notwithstanding the excessive caution invariably used. A serious quarrel was more than once imminent. When only two regiments were with us, there was little difficulty, in keeping the peace ; but on the arrival of the Maharajah's army, with his still larger body of camp fol- .* The Cruise of the Pearl Round the World ; with an Account of the Operations of the Naval Brigade in India. By the Reverend E. A. Williams, 3I.A., Chaplain, Royal Navy. Published by Bentley.

lowers, it became troublesome work. Several frivolous complaints were made with reference to the killing of oxen for food for our men, and on one occa- sion our noble allies cut adrift the oxen which were crossing the river for the force, suspecting that they were intended for food ; and one of them in a fury drew his kookrio in a most threatening manner on one of our men. Consequently, all things considered, it might have been injudicious to have gone with such troublesome allies on a long march."

At Belwa, within six miles of Fyzabad, our seamen were joined by comrades on whom they could rely—the Bengal Volunteer Cavalry, 250 strong. Then was fought the battle of Amorha which saved the rich plains of Goruckpore " from a second in- undation" of the ravagers, and gave the Naval Artillery an op portunity of being thoroughly equipped for the first time ; for limbers and spare ammunition waggons were captured in abun- dance, besides seven guns and a cart with 25,000 musket balls.

"In four hours the enemy, who were reported to be 4000 sepais, 10,000 irregular troops, 300 sowers, and ten guns, were completely defeated and routed by 1261 men and four guns, with a severe loss, in killed and wounded, of about 500. . . . Thus the teeth of the tiger were drawn for that time, as the natives of India without guns venture to do but little, the noise of their cannon considerably raising their courage."

The Naval Brigade had one officer killed, and fourteen or fifteen men wounded ; several troopers also were wounded, but none killed. After a rest of six weeks during the hot season a sharp action was fought at Telga, and others followed, always with the same success, at Jamoulee, Nuggur, Lumptee, Debreah, Doomureahgunge, and Toolsepoore, where the last large body of mutineers was hemmed in by Lord Clyde's army from the west- ward, Sir Hope Grant's large force of cavalry from the south, Brigadier Rowcroft's column from the east, which included the Naval Brigade. Here the last general action was fought, the war being declared at an end on New Year's-day in the following week ; and with this grand finale the Pearl's Naval Brigade wound up their two campaigns in India, in which they had fought their way for a distance of more than two hundred miles, invariably sweeping all before them. We wish that Mr. Williams had enabled us to give a less dry account of the remarkable enterprise he has attempted to chronicle ; but his book is deplorably feeble. The journal from which it is taken was written, he says, without the slightest intention of committing it to the press ; but he has yielded to the solicitation of " several friends." Let him never take their advice again. It was cruel of them to lead him into such an exposure of the barrenness of his mind, its muddy shallows, and his pro- pensity to ungrammatical slipslop. We will give a few speci- mens of the platitudes and blunders with which his pages abound. Speaking of the sights seen on the -Ganges, he says-

, Sometimes the ghastly corpse of a Hindoo whose friends are too poor to buy fuel for the burning-pile, floats down the river, on which a vulture or carrion crow sails along to obtain his wonted repast."

And then he adds this fine remark-

" Such customs, like many others, are repulsive to Christian ideas of de- cency and propriety, and, like a multitude of other Eastern usages, are the reverse of our own."

The personal pronouns are continually perplexing him, as in the following passage :—

" During the halts at Sewan and Myrwa the Brigade was exercised daily at battalion and light-infantry drill, rifle-practice, and light field-piece drill. The horses at first were fresh and unbroken, and when yoked to the guns, carried away the traces ; but in a short time they were so well managed, that when they came into action, they had advanced to a high degree of efficiency, not only in those duties in which the requirements of their pro- fession as men-of4var's men caused them to be acquainted, such as rifle- practice and gunnery, but to their wonted activity in the management of guns was added a speedily acquired expertness in the management of the artillery horses."

Describing a visit to the durbar of Jung Bahadoor, he writes as if the English officers had examined the Nepaulese chieftain as to his knowledge of geography ; for, says our author-

" After having sat for a short time, and among other topics making some inquiries about the Baltic and Black Sea, and the war in the Crimea, with which Jung seemed to be tolerably acquainted, we all rose up to retire."

Here is a choice example of rhetoric by the learned called rig- marole. We learn from it that the westerly winds may give some idea of the atmosphere :-

"It was a most unsatisfactory day for an action ; the westerly winds which prevail in some parts of India becoming heated by. passing over many hundreds of miles of roasted soil, which has become and and parched by a burning sun ; and while whisking a searching and unbearable dust into every crevice of the human face, added to the fiery rays which are shot from the luminary above, augmented by those reflected by the bleached verdure- less soil over which the troops had to march, roasting their eyes, and toasting their skin, may give some idea of the atmosphere, which has been compared to a blast from a furnace, in which an army in the field has to live and fight at this season in India ; but the old proverb. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good,' is apropos in this case. It [the proverb?] is made to produce a refreshingly low temperature in the bungalows of Europeans during the hot season, so that to permanent residents it may be considered an ad- vantage. A kind of door called a tatty, is made of the kuskus, a root which bears a resemblance to dry grass ; and being placed in the doorway facing the west, is perpetually kept wet by a cooley throwing water over its and the hot wind blowing through, produces a cool and refreshing air within, often reducing the thermometer from 100 degrees to 70 degrees."

The Indian services of the officers and men of the Pearl were worthy of a better historian than Mr. Williams ; a worse they could hardly have found.