EARLY LIFE. 



373 



West England. He was educated at Barnstaple 

 Grammar School, and he used often to confess, 

 with no little merriment, his devotion to hird- 

 nesting and his hatred of ' book-learning.' This 

 distaste ^^'as increased by two ophthalmic attacks 

 in childhood, which rendered reading a painful 

 task ; and in after life he frequently suffered from 

 snow-blindness when crossing the Himalayas. 

 At the age of 17 he was sent to India as a cadet, 

 and in 1844 he was o^azetted ensiOT in the 46th 

 Eegiment Bengal X. I. After the usual mo- 

 notonous barrack-life, he found himself a subal- 

 tern in the so-called ' Fighting Brigade ' of 

 General Sir Colin Campbell, and during the 

 Panjab war he took part in the affairs of, and 

 obtained the medals for, Ramnagar, Sadullapore, 

 Chillianwala, and Guzerat. Burning to dis- 

 tinguish himself in action, he was not favoured 

 by opportunity : on one occasion he was told off 

 with a detatchment to capture a gun ; but, to his 

 great disgust, a counter-order was issued before 

 the attack could be made. 



Lieut. Speke had now served five years, and 

 when the campaign ended he applied himself, 

 with his wonted energy, to make war upon the 

 fauna and ferae of the Himalavas. A man of 

 lithe, spare form, about six feet tall, 'blue-eyed^ 



