bank, opposite to where the Pioneers had drawn up on the farther bank.

It took some time to build the bridge, and it was pretty rickety when
done, but it saved the men having to ford. Only one man fell into the
river, but he was pulled out all right. The baggage did not arrive at
the bridge till dark, and most of the coolies waded across, as there was
not time for them to cross in single file on the bridge. The battery
also forded, but the donkeys had to be unladen and the loads carried
across by hand, and the donkeys were then driven in and made to swim. It
was night before the rearguard began to cross, Cobbe, who was in
command, not getting in till close on nine o'clock. A couple of shots
were fired after dark, and there seemed no satisfactory explanation as
to why they were fired, but nobody was hit. The coolies were all put
into the courtyard of the fort and a guard on the gate, and they soon
had fires going, round which they huddled.

As it was impossible to carry away all the grain we had found, I got
permission to issue a ration to all the coolies, who had most of them
no supplies of any description, and, telling the guard who had replaced
Gammer Sing to let the coolies in in single file, I then sent some
Levies to drive them up like sheep. The news soon spread that food was
going cheap, and they didn't require much driving. The flour was in a
bin about six feet square, by four feet high, and only a small round
hole at the top. We soon enlarged that so that a man could get in. I
furnished him with a wooden shovel evidently meant for the job, and gave
the order for the men to file in. As each man came in he received a
shovelful, into his skirt tail, and then had to march round a box and
out of the door. It took some two hours to finish the job, and even then
the flour was not expended, while the grain, of which there was some in
more bins, had not been touched. I left the guard over the door, and got