74 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



in reaching the river-bank. They plunged into the 

 water, where two more were shot and one, giving up 

 exhausted, was beaten to death on the bank. But 

 Thomson and Delafosse and privates Murphy and 

 Sullivan, naked and passing several alligators on the 

 way, swam and floated for three hours, when they 

 finally came to a friendly village, where, exhausted 

 from hunger, fatigue, and suffering, they were 

 kindly treated and eventually conducted to safety. 

 Thus only four out of eight hundred escaped. 



That is the story of Cawnpore. As you wander 

 through the intrenchments and down to the Massa- 

 cre Ghat, it is difficult to imagine the events which 

 took place on that quiet landscape. To-day it has an 

 air of peace and solemn calm, as if the place were 

 in perpetual mourning, the cause for which neither 

 time nor new-made history could ever make it for- 

 get. And when you pass to other surroundings and 

 are looking at cheerier scenes and places, you will 

 take away with you a little of the seriousness with 

 which even the shortest stay at Cawnpore must 

 permanently impress you. 



Apart from its historic interest there is nothing 

 to hold the visitor at Cawnpore ; the town itself is 

 unprepossessing ; the narrow streets on which open 

 the booths of the natives are bordered by monoto- 

 nous plaster houses, and the chief impression one 



