viii PREFACE. 



Whilst recording these few souvenirs of former days, the 

 news has lately arrived of the fearful mutinies and their at- 

 tendant atrocities that have taken place in India; and every 

 former resident in that country, who has not gradually 

 watched the progress of events, must have been struck with 

 surprise and astonishment to find that a Sepoy army, hitherto 

 so well disciplined, obedient, and in almost every respect 

 excellent soldiers, could have been capable of the enormities 

 they have been, after so many years of quiet and apparent 

 content, with very few exceptions. 



The mutiny at Yellore was certainly a proof of what their 

 passions might be roused to upon any I infraction of what 

 they considered the dignity of their caste, or the ceremonials 

 attendant upon it, with regard to dress, coiffure, &c. ; and 

 a very similar circumstance occurred in one of the Nizam's 

 cavalry regiments a short time before my arrival in India, 

 when a Captain Davis, commanding, and several other 

 officers were murdered by their own troopers on the parade- 

 ground at Hydrabad. 



Since the period when I resided in India the military 

 and civil educations of the Company's servants have been 

 much better regulated than formerly, when any boy with 

 interest of some sort or other could obtain a cadetship, 

 with no previous military knowledge or examination, and 

 perhaps not much education of any kind. He arrived in 

 India, and if not possessed with much zeal for the service, 

 the simple learning of his drill from a native sergeant was, 

 and remained, the extent of his acquirements in a military 

 capacity. He gradually picked up a little Hindostanee by 



