_Arrival of Jung Bahadoor in Ceylon--Voyage to Calcutta--Rifle practice
on board the_ Atalanta--_Rifle-shooting--Colonel Dhere Shum Shere--A
journey along the Grand Trunk Road of Bengal--The experimental
railway--The explosion at Benares_.

Towards the close of the year 1850 a considerable sensation was created
in the usually quiet town of Colombo by the arrival in Ceylon of His
Excellency General Jung Bahadoor, the Nepaulese Ambassador, on his return
to Nepaul, bearing the letter of the Queen of England to the Rajah of
that country.

The accounts which had preceded him of the magnificence of the jewels
with which his person was generally adorned, had raised expectations
amongst the natives which were doomed to disappointment: intelligence had
been received by Jung of the death of the Queen of Nepaul, and the whole
Embassy was in deep mourning, so that their appearance on landing created
no little astonishment, clad, as they all were, in spotless white,
excepting their shoes, which were of black cloth--leather not being
allowed to form part of the Nepaulese mourning costume.

His Excellency had a careworn expression of countenance, which might have
been caused either by the dissipation attendant upon the gaieties of his
visit to London, by grief for his deceased Queen, or by sea-sickness
during his recent stormy passage across the Gulf of Manaar. He had been
visiting sundry Hindoo shrines, and it was for the purpose of worshipping
at the temple of Ramiseram, which is situate on the island of that name,
in the Gulf of Manaar, forming part of Adam's Bridge, that he touched at
Colombo. Here I was fortunate enough to make his acquaintance, and,