THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
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country, for many miles the view was one of groups of villages under the 
shade of the banana and toddy trees, these were collectively called by 
the name of Bholkagoan. The sun was by this time very strong, the 
elephants and ourselves considerably exhausted, so I called a halt, sent for 
some of the villagers to bring refreshments, to give me information, and 
rested for two hours. 
The villagers, on hearing of the arrival of a white man, came in numbers 
to see me, bringing fruit, sweetmeats, and milk. They told me that a force 
of the Company Sahib Bahadur, was two long days' journey off, and 
complained most bitterly of the oppression they had suffered from their 
Bhootea masters. The town of Hooldeebaree was my next point, and 
a guide was given me to show the way there. I was much pleased by the 
behaviour of the men of Bholka, who strove to assist me in every way, and 
to repay whom, for their welcome gift of fruit and milk, I had great 
difficulty, they long refusing payment for what they had brought. 
One of my escort, a grey-headed Sikh, who had fought against us at 
Moodkee, here obtained some opium; the unfortunate man had become quite 
miserable, and exhausted from the want of this narcotic, an incredible 
quantity of which he daily consumed; when unable to procure opium, 
he languished, refusing food, quite unable to sleep or rest, becoming 
physically unfit for any kind of work. No sooner had he indulged in the 
noxious narcotic than he brightened up, sang aloud, laughing heartily at 
his previous incapacity. 
Being sufficiently rested we started again, taking a direction about N.N.W., 
through a country far less overgrown with jungle, than any I had yet seen in 
the Dooars. Both to the right and left lay villages ; two streams we passed 
were bridged, and at nightfall we came to the village of Coomergoan, which 
was divided, by a stream of about £ feet deep, from the village of Hooldee¬ 
baree. Animals and men being thoroughly done up, I determined to rest 
here for the night, in a little hut standing by itself in a group of trees by the 
wayside. The villagers of Coomergoan, whom I sent for, gave me very 
contradictory accounts; one man who had informed me of the neighbourhood 
of a party of Bhooteas, afterwards refused to say more or to confirm his 
previous statement. The Sepoys of the escort said that there was some 
mystery and begged me to be cautious. After an hour's cross-questioning 
it was told me that the Bhooteas had repeatedly visited Hooldeebaree, 
indeed, that some houses erected there lately had been burnt down, that one 
villager had been killed and sixteen carried off as slaves, and this only 
three or four days before. This was pleasant kind of news, especially as the 
party of Bhooteas who committed the outrage were sa*id to be at Soonker- 
muck, a place, the exact distance of which I could not find out, except that 
a man could easily go there and return in the day. 
After considering the matter, I determined to keep hostages with me 
from among the men of the neighbouring village; these men and their 
friends were informed that I was to receive immediate notice of the approach 
of any Bhooteas in the night, or that instantaneous punishment would fall 
on the said hostages if any attack was made on me. I was well aware that 
if the villagers laid out proper scouts no one could approach me without 
being seen by them, and I knew that the four Sepoys and myself could keep 
fifty men at bay as long as our provisions lasted. About 8 or 9 p.m., a police- 
