TRACTS OF COUNTilY~ON THE KISTNAH. 127 



point of retiring from the service and proceeding to England ; 

 but he found himself unwilling to quit India without 

 making an effort to rescue the interesting country which he 

 had explored from the desolation and pestilence which 

 seemed to have claimed it for their own. He obtained per- 

 mission to cultivate all lands which he could reclaim in 

 Peddacheroo and Siddapur, rent-free, for 10 years, and 

 with a grant of Rupees 3,000 from Government he address- 

 ed himself to his perilous task. 



Half the little party who accompanied him from Nellore 

 died of fever within twelve months, and the rest fled. Gra- 

 dually, however, his kindliness and wisdom conciliated the 

 Chenchuwars who wandered about the neighbourhood, and 

 they began to give up their savage modes of life and aid him 

 in his labours. Success was beginning to dawn upon his 

 efforts, when, in 1 859, he was obliged himself to succumb to 

 the deadly climate. He was struck down by rheumatic 

 fever ; his lower limbs were paralyzed, and his shattered 

 constitution compelled him to leave every thing and go to 

 England in search of health. 



His affairs did not prosper in his absence, and when he 

 returned, married, in 1861, he found the sources of his in- 

 come diminished, and labour harder to obtain than ever. 

 In each successive year the feeble group that surrounded 

 him was literally decimated by disease. No longer alone in 

 the world, he had the interests of others to care for, and in 

 March 1864 he found himself obliged to relinquish the great 

 object of his life, and wrote as follows : " I have wasted JO 

 precious years and spent a great deal of money. I now have 

 a family ; and whatever quixotic notions I might once have 

 entertained, I now confess to one sole motive, and this the 

 acquisition of property for those I shall leave in the course 

 of time ; and as it is quite clear that neither honour nor 



