PATNA DURING THE MUTINY. 171 



I often longed to know their thoughts, though they might be far 

 from flattering to myself; but this I may fairly say, that whether they 

 liked their changed abode or not, it would have been far better had 

 they stayed there always ; for some years after they had to change 

 their residence, as convicts beyond the sea, to a far less delightful 

 place than Patna. 



The rural population of the district, so far as I could judge, took 

 no share in the mutinous spirit of the Sepoys, and they gave us 

 hardly any trouble. I was much impressed with this fact later on, 

 when I was sent for two days' journey up the river Gunduc, in order 

 to move all the boats I found from one side of the river to the other, 

 and prevent certain native regiments crossing. On starting, my 

 chief presented me with a copy of " Vanity Fair,'" which I had not 

 read before, and he told me to keep a sharp look out for mutineers. 

 But I soon found that it was best not to trouble my head about the 

 enemy, and so I lay very snug inside the boat reading my book, and 

 taking a stroll only in the evening. 



I always found the villagers most polite and humble, and none of 

 them offered to molest me though I was quite alone. 



In frigid England, the pastime of swimming gives more pain than 

 pleasure so far as my experience goes, but during my Indian career 

 I passed a considerable portion of my time in water, and every 

 station is careless of expense in erecting a commodious bathing 

 place, where a really happy hour may be passed at morning, noon, 

 or night. Directly the sun had risen, giving light to Patna, we all 

 assembled at the bath, the temperature of which I tested and found 

 to be rather higher, in its normal state, than what is called a hot 

 bath in England. But as the outside air marked an average of 

 eighty degrees, it appeared quite cool to persons swimming in it. 



When I was acting as Civil and Sessions Judge of Tipperah, there 

 was a piece of water with a circumference of half-a-mile at the 

 bottom of my garden, and the Magistrate and I almost every day at 

 sunrise having adjusted a slightly buoyant apparatus, and an 

 umbrella to shade our eyes, would lie upon our backs on the surface 



