MEMOIRS OT A FIELD••OFFICER IN THE INDIAN ARMY%

THESE Memoirs are the autobiography of the late Major DAVID PRICE, a man of some standing as an Oriental scholar, and known to Indian students for his " Chronological Retrospect of the Prin- cipal Events of Mahommedan History," an " Essay towards the History of Arabia, antecedent to the birth of Mabommed," and various translations.

The period of time embraced in Major Pateles autobiography, is from his birth in 1762, till his retirement from India and active service in 1804 ; and, as a whole, is a somewhat tedious affidr, con- sisting of reminiscences and extracts front journals, relating to mat- ters which seldom have much interest for any beyond the persons immediately concerned. This, however, is the %nit of' the old nar- rator in overlaying his theme; for there are characteristic points both in his early life and in the times in which he lived, well worth giving to the world, though they might have been given in one-fifth of the space. Amongst the flintier, are his two London adventures : the first time, when he spent all the money he was intrusted with to carry him to the University, and was rescued from despair by a stranger, who, noting his deep dejection, questioned him, and communicated with hi.: friends; the second: tune, when, starting from Wales with his slender portion, and also part of his sister's, in a desperate resolve to seek his fortune, the gayeties of London were again too much for him. His money vanished; he wandered about despondiug and penniless; and, seeing a recruiting-ser- geant's advertisement to " spirited young men" over the doer of the old Green Man and Still, he inlisted in the service of the East India Company. Even here, his nature, his breeding, and his luck prevailed. The Chaplain to the troops at Gravesend noticed his disconsolate appearance; sent for him; beard his confession; found that DAVID'S late ffither was the clergyman who had edu- cated ,himself; wrote to his friends ; and 6y their joint exer- tions a cadetship was promised, and young Paten sailed from Eng- land in 1781 as a volunteer.

Many touches of the times are equally characteristic. When the young adventurer started on his career, our Indian empire, though extensive, was precarious; the French, the Dutch, and the Portu- guese, had strong settlements and powerful armaments in that quarter ; the Mahrattas wee in full ii.mher ; and livokat Am, the father of 'firm°, was ravaging the Carnatie with a hundred thou- sand men. Indian fortunes were rapidly acquired, by peculation, corruption, and " squeezing of Nabobs ; " and HAsTixos, with his notorious creatures Re:mama) and BUTT. were in the zenith of their power. The Indian Army partook of the mixed character of the Government—vigorous, irregular, unscrupulous. In the midst of a general war with Europe and the American Colonies, officers and men were scarce, and anybody of any nation passed muster : in lieu of the regular drill which now prevails throughout the ser- vice' every commander exercised his battalion after his own ideas ; uniforms were equally ad libilum ; and arms and appointments would seem to have been in a state shocking to a modern marti- net, for the rear rank of the Sepoys was only armed with spears, and in the war against lIvnan the detachment to which young PRICE belonged took the field without either tents or cannon. But the material deficiencies were supplied by the moral qualities of energy, courage, and hope. Under the Company, service seems to have been pretty sure of reward, merit of promotion; the allow- ances were liberal; and the gains from plunder, prize-money, and other sources, often considerable. We bear of' a Lieutenant of three or four and twenty who had made his " ten thousand pounds." When our hero's cadetship was co:Oirmed, and he was ordered to join, he found himself' in debt, and without means of furnishing Ids equipment, having arrived in India " without a shil- ling :" but one morning a letter was put into his hand, containing "a draft for one thousand and thirty rupees, being his share of the prize-money arising from the capture of Trincomalee." He had had his passage to Bombay in a ship which formed part of the squadron destined for the reduction of the lice; volunteered with three or four more young adventurers. to join the assault ; and was thus seasonably paid for his day's work. Scattered over the volume, ;mama pointless stories of forgotten individuals, descriptions of insignificant or private events, diaries of weather, and tame sketches of scenery, will be found some valuable matter. Of this kind are several indications of Hindoo character ; and traits of that English disposition to serve others,

who had no claim beyond that of a common country or a com-

mon nature, which is dying away with the recklessness and many other foibles of the olden time. the Memoirs also contain a variety

of anecdotes giving glimpses of the state of' war and the life of ad-

venturers—how such men are thrown by force of circumstances into close and almost brotherly communion with persons they never saw before or may see again ; of whose very names they are often ignorant, but who, front a coalition danger or important service, are impressed upon the memory till the latest moments of existence. Except the last siege of Seringapat a in, the events with which Major PRICE was connected are not historically important ; nor, after his

regular appointment to the Army, of a very striking nature, lie

served with detachments in the wars against HYDER Mid TIMID; was promoted in regular course ; lost hislea- at the attack upon

Durbar in 1791; was subsequently appointed to several 'semi-civil

posts, for which his skill in Persian eminently qualified him ; and was chosen by the Bombay Army as their prize-agent in the war which ended in the capture of Seringapatam. His employment here was the most extensive and singular of any he was engaged in. It realizes Sir Pertinax Macsycophant's wish—" Ah, I should like to have the strangling of a Nabob, the rummaging of his Fold dust, his jewel-closet, and a' his magazines of bars and ingots.' It aho gives a notion of the fortunes made upon these occasions some fifty years ago. Seringapatam, we fancy, was one of the Duke of WEL. LINGTON'S first grand tastes of prize-money.

" The wealth of the palace, which was sufficiently dazzling to the eyes of many who were much more habituated to the sight of hoarded treasures than we were, scented, at the moment, in specie, anti jewels, anti bullion, and bales of costly stuff, to surpass all estimate. " Some conception may, perhaps, be formed of the magnificent expectations which we were led to entertain, when I state that on the lust day on which we were occupied in taking charge of the specie, we counted not less than twelve hundred thousand sultauny pagodas ' • which, at four rupees to the stiltanny, was equivalent with flirty-eight laks of rupees, or nearly half a million sterna,' The pagodas being sealed up in bags of one thousand each, it needed 014{4* ascertain the contents of the first bag—for so we were apprized by the shraufs, or money-changers—and to take the remainder by weight ; in which the was never found the smallest deficiency. The prize agents, seven in number, were therefore, perhaps, well Ivarranted in congratulating each other on being each I0,000L richer than in the morning of that day. * * * " Ill the back wall of the hall of audience, which lay open Olt the easfside of the first square or court, was the door of the treasury,Ithich had no other open, log, and was, therefore, perfectly dark on the closing of the door. lit front of this door, well guarded by European sentries, were placed the tables, on which we took account of the specie and jewels; and as the former had been sifted to the last fanam, by the third day, we proceeded to value and lot the contests of the jewel-ollice. The task of registering these glittering articles was as. signed to me; a Hindu goldsmith, or jeweller, being retained, to set a valuation on the different articles. And it was certainly not a little to our credit, eon- sitlering the magnitude and variety of property, to find the general accuracy with which this was accomplish& d."

'lime jewels being registered and valued, were distributed in kind; which gave rise to some scenes, singular enough to our notions, who are not Ihmiliar with council.: of war called to settle shares of plunder, or accustomed to see men of rank personally engaging in pecuniary squabbles. In the allotment which fell to the share of General Barris, as Commander- in-Chief, there WaS a gorgeous emerald necklace, which on file ffirmatian of our jeweller, had been registered at the valae of 50400 sultaanks, or some,. thing more than 20,000/. sterling; certainly, on sober reflection, a prodigious suin to be taken in a single lot ; and we could not have reasonably expressed any wonder, when Captain, afterwards General Sir John 31aleolin, brought the article to oar table, with a desire front General Harris that it might be rem- hual. But we were certainly not a little surprised, when our jeteelkr turned sharp round upon us, with the dechwatffin that he had said 25,000 instead of 50,000; in flinduslaully, patebeiss, and not pachauss, hazaur ; the one signi- fying :Eh and the Mber On a mole m lore ins.peetion 0: the article, which was composed or fi5 eme- rald Leads, from the weight of 120 rattles or carats to 11 downwards, the larger being of the site and nearly the shape of' a greengage plum. but alto- gether full of flaws—it certainly did appear of such very afermr nit :in ic value, that we felt it imp..s.4ible to resist the desire of changing it for some o;her lot of the value of 50,000 sultaunies, which provea perfectly satisfin.':ory to the General.

"On another occasion, Sir David Baird made his appearance at the prize table, exhibiting, with anger ill suppressed, a large ruby ring, which he said ffiul been allotted to him at the value of 1,000 sub:unties; but which, on being taken out of the setting, proved to be nothing more than a lump of coloured glass, not worth even as many coteries. Fortunately, on referring to the reg4....r, it was found that I had entered in a parenthesis (if real) "1,000 This was not less satisfactory to ourselves than it was to the Goners!, tied we re- joiced at the opportunity of doing him justice, by exchanging the allotment for another of sufficient value.

" Much about the same time also we had the mortification of receiving, from Major-General Poplana, a rinsi grievous complaint, that we had valued the allotment which fell to his share at 10,000 sultaunies; whereas they aprared to him nothing better than a bunch of chipped glass. When the parcel ryas handed over to the jeweller for reinspe,ation, he declared that this article WOi fully worth the sum ; and that he had not a doubt but the money would be given for it in the bazaar. The General consented to make tile trial, and ac- tually received for the article not hi s than 1,000 sultaunies lu.yond the valua• than. We TCjOked flt the cireouaauro ; but I do mutt r.a.ollect that the General felt it expedient to relimpii,11 the surplus.

* * *

" Another, and I believe the la:d einmdaint that was brought before us, band for which we all felt a more than ordinary de:ree of regret, was on the sit ject of an allotment which fell to the share of Major, now General Sir Thomas Dallas, which he very naturally requestad to have exchanged. The article consisted of unsightly, tarnished pearl, in festoons ; which he very humorously said could be of no use to him but to caparison his horse. Our jeweller per- sisted, however, in affirming his first valuation ; and I. rather think Sir Thomas was obliged, after all, to take up with his lot."

Much wealth was plundered during the storming ; and, in the hands of the soldiers, jewels seem to have been a drug.

" Dr. Mein, a surgeon in the Army, purchased from a soldier of the Seventy Fourth Regiment, tbr a mere tel the, t wo pair of solid gold bangles, or bracelets, set with diamonds, the least ly of' which was valued bv a 1 lydernhad jeweller at 110,000 sultatuties, or 320,000 rupees, at the lowest exelange eptivalent with 52,11001. sterling. The other pair he declared to be of such superlative value, that he could not pretend to express any opinion. It was moreover notorious, that a quantity of the most valuable pearl WaS to be bought in the bazaars from the soldiery for a bottle of spirits."