"FRESH WOODS AND PASTURES NEW." 59 



between Lahore and the Satlaj. "You must con- 

 gratulate me," Hodson writes in December 1847 

 from Kassur, " on having been appointed to the staff 

 of the Eesident at Lahore, a piece of good fortune 

 ahiiost unprecedented in one so young in the service. 

 I owe it to the continued and unwearying kindness 

 of Colonel Lawrence, and to an impression on the 

 part of the powers that be, that I was game to 

 work : one which, I must confess, I have done some- 

 what to deserve during the past year. I am now, 

 in addition to the duties of the Guide Corps, em- 

 ployed in surveying, and making roads and canals 

 under the chief engineer, so as to open up and 

 improve the country of the Sikhs ; while at the 

 same time I have to keep an eye on the doings of 

 the native officials, and protect the oppressed from 

 injustice and tyranny. I have only within the last 

 two days hunted out as pretty a case of murder 

 and robbery as ever graced Newgate, and sent the 

 worthies to Lahore for trial, besides several cases of 

 theft and false imprisonment. . . . Within the last 

 thirty -two days I have marked out and cleared 

 twenty miles of road through a wide jungle ; 

 collected and set to work upwards of 1000 men, 

 and trained them to all kinds of employments which 

 they had never seen before. In short, you may 

 judge I have not been idle when I tell you that 

 upwards of 50,000 Rs. have passed through my 

 hands in the last nine months for public works. 

 Till the last month this has been gratis on my part, 

 but my new appointment comfortably doubles my 

 regimental pay, which in these hard times is not a 

 bad thing." 



On November 30 Henry Lawrence quitted Lahore 



