fever into which it had been thrown by the Mutiny of 1857 -- 58. We
were not long, therefore, in making our arrangements for escaping from
Allahabad, with the prospect before us of exchanging the discomforts
of another hot season in the plains, for the pleasures of a sojourn in
the far-famed valley of Cashmere, and a tramp through the mountains of
the Himalayas -- the mountains, whose very name breathes of comfort and
consolation to the parched up dweller in the plains. The mountains of
"the abode of snow!"

Our expeditionary force consisted at starting of but one besides the
brother officer above alluded to -- the F. of the following pages
-- and myself. This was my Hindoo bearer, Mr. Rajoo, whose duty
it was to make all the necessary arrangements for our transport
and general welfare, and upon whose shoulders devolved the entire
management of our affairs. He acted to the expedition in the capacity
of quartermaster-general, adjutant-general, commissary-general,
and paymaster to the forces; and, as he will figure largely in the
following pages, under the title of the "Q.M.G.," and comes, moreover,
under the head of "a naturally dark subject," a few words devoted to
his especial description and illumination may not be out of place.

With the highest admiration for England, and a respect for the
Englishman, which extended to the very lining of their pockets,
Mr. Rajoo possessed, together with many of the faults of his race,
a certain humour, and an amount of energy most unusual among the
family of the mild Hindoo. He had, moreover, travelled much with
various masters, in what are, in his own country, deemed "far lands;"
and having been wounded before Delhi, he had become among the rest of
his people an authority, and to the Englishman in India an invaluable
medium for their coercion and general management.