John McCosh

“ Now, as the north wind lulls, the vanguard of a division rolls over the ridge, but as it freshens is driven back again, broken and dispersed over the curling heads of the main body in the centre. About half-past ten the day is generally decided, the south wind prevads, and a whole hemisphere of clouds bursts over the mountains like a deluge, rushes down the opposite valleys, and envelops the highest mountains in gloom. A steady heavy fog continues during the day, so damp, that every hair on one's cheek has its dew-drop. ”

“ Nothing can exceed the sterile, burnt-up appearance of the country; during the prevalence of the hot winds the trees keep their foliage, but the earth is stripped of all herbage as if a flood of lava had flowed over it, drinking its rivers dry and leaving it calcined and strewed with ashes. As the wind generally lulls at night, the house is heated to a degree not to be endured, and many have their beds carried out of doors under the open sky with no other covering but the starry firmament. ”

“ He feels himself in a state of transition between the past and the future and till he takes root in the land of his adoption, and puts forth new roots, new branches, and new foliage, he will not be himself again. There is a time when the remotest point of our native land beams upon the eye of the absentee with joy and delight, and the more hardships and adversities he has undergone, and the greater the dangers and escapes from the winds and the waves, the rocks and the shoals, he may have encountered on his return, the higher he appreciates the blue headland looming in the distance. ”

“ A Sampson steamer ranges along side, an engagement is made, the two ropes are made fast, and swift the vessel glides into the interior on the flood tide, saluting the numerous homeward bound ships anchored in the stream. The channel now narrows till the natives can be distinctly seen on either side, groves of many sorts of palm trees fringe the shores. An alligator may be seen basking on the mud like the dry trunk of a tree, possibly a tiger sneaking about in the distance, and dead bodies excite his horror as they float by, forming rafts for the vultures that are devouring them. ”

“ In the days of ancient Greece—in the days of Machaon, Hippocrates and Æsculapius, such men were treated as guardian angels, when pestilence was monthly decimating the population; they were raised to the highest honours when alive, and worshipped as gods when dead. We are proud to imitate these refined people in most of their manners and customs, but on a subject which all men hold most sacred, the health of our armies, we haggle with the profession as if we were bargaining for haberdashery or horse power. It is not so in the French Army neither of the present day nor of the First Napoleon. ”

“ A change is now come o'er the spirit of the dream; the rebellious dust that wont to fly into every body's face is now become a kneaded clod, a plastic mass of clay, fit for the mould of the brick-maker, or the trowel of the sculptor; the windows of heaven have been opened wide, and copious showers of welcome rain have fallen upon the fevered earth and the no less fevered inhabitants. ”

“ HOUSES.—Native houses are in general very humble dwellings, though of great variety. The Malays build their houses of thatch and bamboo, upon stakes driven into the sand; with the tide flowing under them, approaching them by a boat and mounting them by a ladder. Nothing could be more airy and more cleanly than such an edifice. ”

“ I will not pretend to say, which is the first cause of Cholera, nor do I think we shall arrive at that knowledge till the analysis of the atmosphere is carried to infinitely greater perfection than it is at present; till we are able to separate the principles of small-pox, plague, and intermittent fever from the air we breathe, and bottle them up as we do oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid gas. I consider cholera essentially a disease of secretion, of immoderate secretion of serum from the skin and the intestines. ”

“ When the rains set in, and fall to the extent of 120 inches before they are over;when everything is enveloped in clouds; when confinement to the house for days and even weeks is unavoidable; when nought is to be heard but the splash of the rain as it falls from the roof, and the heavy drops pattering from leaf to leaf of the old oak trees; when nought can be seen through the impenetrable fog, still as a lake, and feeling so liquid that one almost fancies himself living under water ”

“ WYNBERG.—Wynberg is the principal residence of visitors from India, who, of themselves, form a large society, and the new comer will soon find himself at home among them. It is also the residence of most of the officers holding Government employment, who live on friendly terms with their visitors. Wynberg may be called the Auburn of the Cape. Every house is hid in a boundless "contiguity of shade" of oaks and pines, and poplars and willows, perfumed with a profusion of flowers ”

“ One feels an indescribable anxiety and impatience to be away, apparently at variance with the domestic ties that bind him to home; one feels like a thriving sapling torn up by the roots and about to undergo the period of transplantation; all the tendrils of his family circle—the twigs of his acquaintance—the buds of affection, and the full blown blossoms of youthful friendship, are dried up and withered; the channels of his kindred associations are contracted, and the very heart seems to labour in passing the vital current through the system. ”

“ But the sun of the Punjaub, and the sons and daughters of Lahore produce dust enough for such a storm once or twice a week. The roads of the old regime are ankle deep in dust, it plunges under the horses' feet like so much water, a carriage moving along at an easy pace reminds one of the old paintings of Aurora, the wheels enveloped in clouds and the rider only free. ”

“ Fortunately intoxication is now a rare vice in India: the old system of hard living has been exploded, the hard livers have died off or taken themselves off to safer quarters. It is a very rare exception to see an officer the worse of liquor at a mess table, and he is a marked man who is so. Nothing is more injurious to an officer's character than sottishness: nothing more quickly estranges his comrades, and no misdemeanour is more severely punished. ”

“ INDISCRETIONS.—Man's own indiscretion is perhaps as frequent a cause of bad health as climate. One man gets coup de soleil shooting snipe in the heat of the day; another catches fever beating the jungle for heavy game; another gets mauled by a tiger or a bear;and another breaks his leg hunting. Some drink themselves, some eat themselves, some sleep themselves,some gamble themselves, some drug themselves into a state of disease; yet the climate gets a great part of the blame. ”

“ Few climates in the world are more equable throughout the year,than the Neilgherries, equally removed from the winter and rough weather of our northern Sanataria, and the scorching heat of the plains. Indeed, there is a buoyancy and exhilaration in the air which is quite delightful, and the spirits of the invalid rise, and the elasticity of his step increases with the elevation, and,in the great majority of cases, rapidly conduct him to robust health and strength.
The monsoons seem to influence the seasons more than the declination of the sun. ”

“ Indeed, the management of a boat dining such a voyage, and with the appliances in use, is more precarious than that of a fine ship to England. One might imagine that nothing more was necessary than to continue to ascend and descend the stream,and he cannot go wrong; but the whole country is for three or four months of the year covered in a great measure with water and is more like an inland sea than a river without current or permanent landmark, where old channels are filled up every year, and new ones are formed ”

“ This system, which has horrified the world by the heinousness of its guilt, and exhibited a picture of human depravity unparalleled in the history of any nation, has been practised in India for more than two hundred years,and though greatly checked, continues even till this day. The blackest page in the records of the rudest and most savage state of mankind vanishes, and becomes white as snow when contrasted with the enormity of villainy inseparable from the trade of Thuggee, and our astonishment is only increased when we find it practised by the courtly Mussulman and the timid Hindoo ”

“ A portentous stillness prevads; the leaflets upon the trees hang motionless; the cattle of the field startle home; the birds of prey soar far aloft above the clouds; the natives are seen running for shelter in all directions, and the hum of the multitude in the bazars denotes active preparations being made for a coming storm. Soon the forked lightening flashes among the clouds, the thunder rolls high over head, the sun is eclipsed with dust, and darkness prevails, rendering candles in the house indispensable. ”

“ What a contrast India presents is only too well known to those who have experienced the miseries of the bachelor's sick room, where solitude the most profound prevails, only disturbed by the occasional hasty visits of the physician, whose skill is rendered half nugatory by the impossibility of intrusting any one with the administration of medicine, or if the hour of death approach, by the vulture-like crowding of the servants to seize what booty they can lay their hands on. ”

“ When idleness and inactivity are so common, and apathy and ennui, like the dry rot in a ship of the line pervades the community, and entails disease, both bodily and mental, any rational amusement that would ventilate society, and give a fillip to the languid pulse of passing events, that would break the monotony of time, and set the moral elements into circulation, ought to be hailed as a public good. ”

“ Calcutta may be aptly compared to a grand hotel, where travellers meet not only from all parts of India, but from all parts of the world. There assemble the young cadet, high in hope and eager to launch out into the career he expects to conduct him to glory and to fortune; the veteran, wearied with the weight of honours, grey and worn out before his time, panting to return to the land of his boyhood; the invalid—with the hectic flush upon his cheek, his sinews unstrung, and his raiment a world too wide for his shrunk shanks, preparing to embark for a more congeniai climate ”

“ Every idea of luxury and comfort must then be left behind, and a new regime must be submitted to, consistent with the nature of the country, the seat of war. On board ship, the utmost discomfort is to be expected; such a thing as a cabin is entirely out of the question; room on deck for a chair by day and a mattrass by night, and a seat at the dinner-table, is the utmost accommodation to be looked for. ”

“ However, opportunities will arise when he will be amply repaid for occasional petty annoyances; to rescue the young, the brave, and the beautiful, from an untimely tomb, and restore them to the society of their afflicted friends; and their usefulness to the world is no small source of self-congratulation; and it is the most gratifying retrospect of my service in India, that I never lost a lady patient, and that I passed through the late Burmese war without losing an officer of my charge. ”

“ The invalid will find the summer hot,but not oppressive, yet too hot to make a walk in the noonday sun agreeable; but indoors, and with open doors and windows, the temperature is most congenial. A delicious sea breeze, fresh from the southern ocean, will most probably soon set him upon his legs, put flesh on his bones, and a colour on his cheek, strengthen his sinews, raise the dejected spirits, and give a couleur de rose to his whole economy. ”

“ TANKS, POOLS AND DRAINS.—But marshes and rice fields are but two of the many sources of disease to be seen on every hand in India. Every native of rank has a nursery for fever in the immediate vicinity of his house called a tank, and every poor man a pool, from which he dug the mud to build his house,which seem as if made on purpose to supply them with malaria, as well as with muddy water. ”

“ If the young officer has the means of supporting a wife, with all the comforts and luxuries indispensable in India, by all means let him marry the object of his affections; but if he has not, let him remain single, for he must unavoidably get into debt, the greatest curse that he can inflict upon himself and family. In no country are the advantages of female society more appreciable than in India, for much time is necessarily spent at home which, without a companion, would be dull and lonely ”

“ During the months of May and June there is seldom a fleecy cloud upon the sky to screen the inhabitants from the intensity of the solar ray. A tide of flickering exhalations is seen streaming from the plains, assuming the fantastic forms of the mirage; resembling lakes where no water exists, and trees and forests where no vegetation exists. The earth is parched up, rent and riven as if baked over a volcano ”

“ These Hill Stations are the brightest spots in our Indian service, the oases in the desert of our tropical exile, the lands of promise in the wilderness of our weary wanderings, where one and all at some period of their pilgrimage hope to resort to, as a refuge in time of trouble. ”

“ The great mass of the population is either Hindoo or Mussulman. In outward appearance there is but little distinction,but in reality no bond of union,no social intercourse subsists between them. They are equally intolerant of each others religion, repugnant to intermarrying, incapable of sitting down to the same feast, or partaking of the contents of the same cup; so much so that a high caste Brahmin would consider himself defiled by putting a dish used by a Mussulman to his lip, and this only to be expunged by a long course of ablution and devotion. ”