small boat, pretending to sell fruit and trinkets. They assured us
that the French and British were already badly beaten, and that
Belgium had ceased to be. To test them, we asked where Belgium was,
and they did not know; but they swore it had ceased to be. They
advised us to mutiny and refuse to go on to our destruction.

They ought to have been arrested, but we were enraged and drove them
from the ship with blows. We upset their little boat by hauling at
the rope with which they had made it fast, and they were forced to
swim for shore. One of them was taken by a shark, which we
considered an excellent omen, and the others were captured as they
swam and taken ashore in custody.

I think others must have visited the other ships with similar tales
to tell, because after that, sahib, there was something such as I
think the world never saw before that day. In that great fleet of
ships we were men of many creeds and tongues--Sikh, Muhammadan,
Dorga, Gurkha (the Dogra and Gurkha be both Hindu, though of
different kinds), Jat, Punjabi, Rajput, Guzerati, Pathan, Mahratta--
who can recall how many! No one language could have sufficed to
explain one thought to all of us--no, nor yet ten languages! No word
passed that my ear caught. Yet, ship after ship became aware of
closer unity.

All on our knees on all the ships together we prayed thereafter
thrice a day, our British officers standing bareheaded beneath the
upper awnings, the chin-strap marks showing very plainly on their
cheeks as the way of the British is when they feel emotion. We
prayed, sahib, lest the war be over before we could come and do our
share. I think there was no fear in all that fleet except the fear