12 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



ininary outfit being very soon accomplished, was sent down 

 to join the ship in which my passage was taken, at Graveserid, 

 under the charge of the old family butler, whose duty it was 

 to guide my erring steps during their last footprints on their 

 native soil. Alas ! it was only another illustration of the 

 " blind leading the blind." Well clo I remember how the 

 fat old gentleman, after several glasses of post-prandial 

 punch, caught the infection of my own gaiety, was induced 

 to accompany me to a sailor's hop, where more punch was 

 consumed, and more temptations exhibited, and " chill'd 

 remembrance shudders o'er the rest." 



I have wandered since that period over many parts of the 

 globe, and witnessed many curious things, but never did my 

 eyes encounter such a scene of utter confusion as greeted 

 them upon my ascending to the deck of the good ship 

 Orient, 800 tons register, and bound to Madras and Calcutta. 



Cadets of those times were very different from the young 

 gentlemen of the present day, of precocious manners, finished 

 educations, and more military science, or at least theory, 

 than then fell to the lot of most old officers in the Indian 

 army, but a set of rough, noisy boys, just emerged from some 

 school or other, their previous education totally unconnected 

 with their future profession (with the exception of those who 

 had obtained appointments to the Artillery or Engineers from 

 the Military College at Addiscombe), and it was into the 

 midst of such a group as the former, every member of which 

 was vainly endeavouring to discover his own property, cabin, 

 or dormitory, amidst a chaos of boxes, bales, packages, and 

 cargo of all descriptions, that I found myself suddenly intro- 

 duced, and taking an equally active and unsuccessful part in 

 the general occupation. The sailors were weighing anchor. 

 The captain, (an old Navy lieutenant,) was cursing everything 

 and everybody. A cutting March wind, accompanied with 

 snow and sleet, added to our miseries, and increased 



