ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 121 



once told our people where we were going, for how long a 

 time, and what our probable halts would be, F. could 

 depend on everything that was possible being done to ensure 

 our comfort. 



At the same time, things did not go quite like clock- 

 work. For instance, baggage-carts, dogs, etc., might all 

 have set out days ahead, travelling by night if too hot by 

 day, and taking the best roads available — the best were 

 often bad ; while we ourselves started later, riding, buoyed 

 up by the strongly qualified hope that we should not reach 

 our destination first, after all, to find that our arrival had 

 been unheralded by peons, and nothing, instead of all, 

 being in readiness. But with bad weather and worse roads 

 the chances were accepted as even. 



It was with no shock of surprise, therefore, that on reach- 

 ing the Travellers' Bungalow at Sultan's Battery, 1 at the 

 end of a long ride, one wild monsoon day, we heard that 

 until the bridges were mended no carts could cross. There 

 were three of these bridges, the nearest being three, and 

 farthest, nine miles off ; one was burnt, we were told, one 

 broken, and some budmash (rogue) had chopped down the 

 third. The state of the bridges had been certified to F. 

 quite recently, but, as it seemed, not recently enough. 



Travellers' Bungalows are maintained by the Government 

 for the use of travellers, and consist of several rooms fur- 

 nished with tables, chairs, cots, etc., the floors being of 

 beaten earth. Originally intended for Europeans, the richer 

 class natives do, however, make use of them, and their 

 recent presence is unmistakably evident in the betel-nut 

 spit on the walls and floors and the peculiar odour of spices 

 — in cleanliness some of them could not be excelled — left 

 behind them. We found it so this time, as we were not 



1 It was at this place that a treaty of peace was signed by Tippoo Sahib 

 in 1784. It is full of old ruined fortifications, and cannon-balls have been 

 found here. 



