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CAPT. SPEKES WORK, 



dition. Even at the beginning of our long ab- 

 sence from civilized life I could not but perceive 

 that his former alacrity had vanished : he was 

 habitually discontented with what was done ; he 

 left to me the whole work of management, and 

 then he complained of not being consulted. He 

 had violent quarrels with the Balocli, and on one 

 occasion the Jemadar returned to him an insult 

 which, if we had not wanted the man, he would 

 have noticed with a sword-cut. Unaccustomed 

 to sickness, he could not endure it himself nor 

 feel for it in others; and he seemed to enjoy 

 pleasure in saying unpleasant things — an Anglo- 

 Indian peculiarity. Much of the change he ex- 

 plained to me by confessing that he could not 

 take interest in an exploration of which he was 

 not the commander. On the other hand, he 

 taught himself the use of the sextant and other 

 instruments, with a resolution and a pertinacity 

 which formed his characteristic merits. Night 

 after night, at the end of the burning march, he 

 sat for hours in the chilling dews, practising 

 lunars and timing chronometers. I have ac- 

 knowledged in becoming terms, it is hoped, the 

 value of these labours, and the benefit derived 

 from them by the Expedition. The few books — 

 Shakespere, Euclid, and so forth — which com- 



