OUTBREAK OF THE INDIAN MUTINY 



below the surface of the stream, with a force against which 

 it is useless for the strongest swimmer to contend. 



" Some of these currents," he went on, " are believed to 

 run counter to each other and to meet at certain points, 

 the two opposing forces causing an upward action of the 

 waters in the form of a column or of a water-spout reversed." 



The sudden propulsion to the surface, to which I owed 

 my life was, he said, probably due to the fact that, while 

 being carried along, I had, most providentially, en- 

 countered one of these opposing currents and had been 

 shot upwards on the upheaval that immediately ensued. 



I was feeling too weak and ill just then to realize how 

 near I had been to death, but later on, as I lay there daily 

 recovering health and strength, the terrible experience 

 would come back to me, sending a cold shiver through my 

 frame at the mere recollection of that desperate struggle. 



And, here let me assure the reader, from knowledge 

 born of this experience, that drowning cannot be the 

 painless ending some theorists would have us believe. 

 The visions of green fields and beauteous flowers they 

 speak of as the prelude to unconsciousness and death, 

 might perhaps have come later ; but no vision, however 

 pleasingly absorbing could possibly have dispelled the 

 feeling of deadly terror that possessed me nor mitigated 

 by one fraction the physical suffering I endured while en- 

 gulfed in the depths of those rushing waters. 



By the time I had recovered, and was discharged from 

 hospital, the great Indian Mutiny had commenced, and 

 harassing accounts reached the city daily of Europeans 

 being massacred wholesale, of women murdered before their 

 husbands' eyes, children tossed aloft on bayonet points, 

 and other atrocities too terrible to describe, till every 

 white man in the country felt bound to take up arms. 



Depots had been established at all important centres 

 where corps of yeomanry and police were rapidly being 

 raised, and sailors, ever ready for adventure, were deserting 

 their ships in hundreds eager to enlist and help to avenge 

 these cruel massacres. 



My own ship had long since sailed on her homeward 

 voyage, and having no friends or other ties to keep me in 

 Calcutta I was, naturally, as eager as the rest to join this 



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