264 TEAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPORT. 



starting this institution was due, I believe, to Colonel 

 Keatinge, a recent Political Eesident, who did a great 

 deal for Kathiawar, and managed to make great inno- 

 vations in that province without irritating any class 

 of the inhabitants ; but the practical work of having 

 the college built and organised devolved upon Colonel 

 W. "W. Anderson, who was still Political Eesident at 

 the period of my visit. One little feature about the 

 college illustrated in a striking manner the extremes 

 of life in Kathiawar. Here were these boys educated 

 and drilled as in a European public school ; but in 

 some cases the states to which they belonged had not 

 an unreasonable dread of their being assassinated or 

 kidnapped. Their cricket-field was guarded by sen- 

 tries, because intimation had been received of some 

 plot to carry off one of the young minor chiefs ; and 

 on going through the dormitories at night with the 

 Principal, I came upon strange, wild-looking, armed 

 figures (which might have come out of the middle 

 ages) of sentries, keeping watch over some of the 

 principal young chiefs. This anxiety was not to be 

 wondered at, considering the immense change which 

 might be wrought in the affairs of a state, and in the 

 position of its principal families, by the assassination 

 of a young chief. The same dread required that the 

 boys should have their meals prepared by their own 

 special attendants. All this was quite reasonable ; 

 but what a light does it throw on the incalculable 

 advantages which, I shall not say English rule, but 



