PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 



I LEFT Bombay harbour for Abyssinia on the 4 th of 

 December, 1867, in the good ship Bucentaur, Captain 

 Babot, one of the large fleet of transports engaged by 

 the Government for the expedition. At the first notice 

 of the expedition being ordered, in the middle of August, 

 I had applied to the Government of India to be allowed 

 to accompany it as geologist, an application which was 

 immediately granted ; but, owing to the large staff of 

 ofiicers urgently required at the seat of war, and the 

 comparatively small number of vessels which were started 

 in October and November, I w^as not able to obtain a 

 passage earlier. The vessel in which I sailed carried 

 commissariat . " followers," — clerks, bakers, butchers, 

 dhooly-bearers, &c., from all parts of India, Parsees 

 from Bombay, Mahrattas from the Dekkan, Teloogoos 

 from the Northern Circars, Tamuls from Madras, and 

 Hindustanis from the North-west Provinces, under the 

 command of Major Bardin, the chief of the excellent 



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