the royal artillery institution. 
123 
once his own work was done) and penetrate far out of sight into the 
tangled wilderness of grass that lay outside the lines, and would be found 
only after a weary search. 
When at length some 20 or 30, more tractable than the rest, were 
collected and driven in the direction they were to go (we could not talk of 
roads), there was first passive resistance, which gradually grew into livelier 
rebellion and finally into a furious stampede. There was no marching in 
that method, as all the little force was engaged in “ woo'ing'’ and loading, 
in catching cattle and making dashes at one that broke back; so to get 
away from that place and not be obliged to undergo another such melancholy 
start we put heavier loads on the elephants we had got, as I knew that 
stores of meal, &c. (all that was necessary for the rations of native soldiers), 
were collected at our halting places ahead. 
A march of twelve miles brought us to the village of Lotabaree; the road 
had been distinctly marked out, and we proceeded rapidly. The nullahs we 
had to cross had been bridged for men and cattle, but the elephants had to 
ford the deep, muddy streams, and in one instance one of these huge animals 
took over an hour extricating himself; he had once before been “ fixed'' in 
a quagmire and now refused even to attempt to go on, but trumpeted in a 
crying, feeble manner. 
The whole of this first day's march lay through a wide plain, now covered 
with dense jungle grass high above a rider's head, now spreading out into a 
short expanse of shorter but equally rank vegetation; twice we passed through 
villages with a considerable amount of cultivation around, all rice, with its 
single field of mustard. The houses were entirely built of bamboo, the walls 
being plaited sheets of that invaluable tree, and the floors raised about one 
to two feet above the level of the ground, with mats of bamboo matting laid 
down here and there. The inhabitants are a poor race, without energy- 
content to live as their fathers did, eating rice and keeping up the mummery 
of caste. 
The civil authorities had collected as many of the able-bodied villagers as 
they could, as coolies, to carry loads; we had some eighty, but as I before 
said, so determined were they to get away that they had to be placed under 
a guard. And now, when we arrived at Lotobarre, it was amusing to see 
how they cooked, eat, and followed the dictates of nature by word of command. 
Any more respectable-looking, or as was believed, more trustworthy coolie 
who was trusted, made his escape, causing the greatest inconvenience, as his 
load had to be carried by some other method, and we were already heavily 
laden. 
The second march led us through a country similar in general appearance 
to that of the day before. Passing a small village about half-way, which, 
with its few acres of surrounding cultivation, looked like an oasis in the 
midst of the wide plain of luxuriant jungle grass; our path led us close to 
one of the hills which rise so strangely out of the unbroken surface of the 
plain; its slopes were covered with an impenetrable tangle of forest trees, 
interlaced by thorns and creepers, while at its foot lay a ditch of boggy 
morass surrounding it on all sides. As a fastness for defence it would be 
difficult to find one more suitable, but man seldom if ever attempts to 
penetrate here, and the wild elephant, the tiger, bear, and buffalo have it 
all their own way. 
[vol. v.] 
17 
