taariikhda waqoyga somaliyeed

A' TP\ UNDER THE FLAG and Somali Coast Stories Photo by] [Elliott & Fry LAXGTOX PRENDERGAST WALSH, C.I.E. [Frontispiece UNDER THE FLAG and Somali Coast Stories By LANGTON PRENDERGAST WALSH, C.I.E. WITH FRONTISPIECE London : ANDREW MELROSE, LTD. PATERNOSTER HOUSE, ..4 MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN, FOR ANDREW MELROSE, LTD., AT THE ANCHOR PRESS, : : TIPTREF, ESSEX : : CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER PAWI I. MY BIRTHDAY FEBRUARY 29TH - - II II. BARODA ------- 12 III. "A STRONG MAN ARMED" - - - 19 IV. BOYHOOD DAYS - - - - - -*5 V. ODSEY GRANGE AND COWLEY - - '33 VI. WAR CLOUDS ------ 42 VII. BOMBAY -------49 VIII. THE MUTINY INDIAN CIVIL SERVANTS - - 65 IX. SUEZ AND EGYPT ----- gl X. THE MARINE POSTAL SERVICE 90 XI. ADVENTURES IN SUEZ - - - - - IO2 XII. GENERAL ULYSSES GRANT, EX-PRESIDENT U.S.A. IO8 XIII. INDIA AS A MARRIAGE MARKET - - -113 XIV. A MEETING WITH SIR RICHARD BURTON - I2O XV. UNAUTHORIZED ADVENTURES - - - 136 XVI. I MEET GENERAL GORDON - - ^144 xvii. A SURVIVOR'S TALE OF GORDON'S DEATH - 154 XVIII. ARMS AND MEN - - - - 157 XIX. THE CAMPAIGN OFl882 - - - -l6o XX. ISMAILIA - - - - - - i6y XXI. THE AMMUNITION CASES AND TEL-EL-KEBIR - 175 XXII. COLONEL VALENTINE BAKER - TV - 1 82 XXIII. LONDON INDIA OFFICE AND WAR OFFICE - 193 Til 1179134 ' via CHAPTER PAGE I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MY EMPLOYMENT IN SOMALILAND - '-, \> - - 199 II. THE FRENCH SCORE THE FIRST TRICK - - 204 III. ADMINISTRATION OF THE SOMALI COAST, 1883-1885 - -220 IV. BERBERA - - - - 233 V. ENCOUNTERS WITH NEIGHBOURING TRIBES - 243 VI. THE CAPTURE OF A PRINCESS - - - 2 54 VII. SOME RELIGIOUS, MEDICAL, AND FISCAL ASPECTS 265 VIII. PUNITIVE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE JIBRIL ABUKER CLANS, 1 8 88 IX. THE OLD AND NEW REGIME IN SOMALILAND - X. THE JAMES EXPEDITION, 1884 XI. SHIPPING CAMELS UNDER DIFFICULTIES, AND A TRICK AGAINST THE FRENCH - - 297 XII. VISITORS TO THE BERBERA RESIDENCY - - 306 XIII. 2EILA - - - - - - -319 XIV. COMBATING FRENCH INFLUENCE AT ZEILA - 324 XV. ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS THE SAGALLO INCIDENT - - - "- '. '- 329 XVI. MY UNPOPULARITY WITH THE FRENCH AND WITH THE SLAVE-TRADERS ^WELL-SINKING NEAR ZEILA - '?* - cW? - -V- XVII. THE BAITING OF THE BLACK AYSA UGHAZ XVIII. I RETURN ONCE MORE TO ZEILA AND RECEIVE AN OFFICIAL DEPUTATION 360 XIX. SOMALI CHARACTERISTICS AND CONDITIONS - 370 XX. I MEET THE RT. HON. SIR HENRY MORTIMER DURAND, AND IN 1892 LEAVE ZEILA - - 376 APPENDIX - - - - ~3 8 3 PART I CHAPTER I MY BIRTHDAY FEBRUARY 29TH I WAS born on the 29th of February, 1856, in the British cantonment at Baroda, the capital of the Gaekwar's territory in Gujarat, Bombay Presidency. The Reverend James Henry Hughes, M.A., Chaplain of the Church of England at Surat, with pastoral charge of Broach and Baroda, baptized me in St. James's Church, Baroda, on the loth of March. I was christened Langton Prendergast, and registered as the son of Thomas Prender- gast Boles Walsh, ensign of the ist Grenadier Regiment of the Bombay Army. My mother was Euphemia Frances Elizabeth, only child by his first marriage of the Reverend William Spencer Walsh, D.D., T.C.D., of Knockboyne, Navan, Co. Meath, Vicar of Asseyalvoin, Meath, and later Rector of Clonard, Co. Meath, Ireland. Shortly after my birth, my father's sword-orderly, Private Raghoo, in accordance with the customary treat- ment of male children of noble descent, employed an astrologer to prepare my horoscope. And therein he records that my birth took place in the "Shoo", or bright half of the lunar month. Some forty years later this document was produced by this old Grenadier when he came to see me at the Residency, Sawant-Wadi. I have no fault to find with its predictions, many of which have been fulfilled to my great advantage and welfare. CHAPTER II BARODA AT the time of my birth in 1856, Gunpatrao Gaekwar was the ruler of Baroda. He died on the 1 9th of November, 1856, and was succeeded by Khanderao Gaekwar. Major C. Davidson was the Acting Political Resident at Baroda in 1856 and 1857. Lt.-Colonel W. C. Stather commanded the ist Bombay Grenadier Regiment, and was also the senior officer in charge of the troops in garrison at Baroda. My father, Thomas Prendergast Boles Walsh, had joined the Grenadiers in March 1853. He was not the first of our kinsmen to be connected with that city and State, as his uncle, Guy Lenox Prendergast, of the Bombay Civil Service, had been there a few years earlier as the British Resident. At a later date the latter became a Member of Council, Bombay, and, after retirement from India, was an M.P. for Lymington. He died in 1 845 , and was buried at the main entrance of the church at Tunbridge Wells. In 1856 my father was still an ensign of the Grenadiers at Baroda. Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, K.C.B., in the early part of 1856 was a captain in the ist Grenadiers. His company was remarkable for the average height of its rank and file, 5 ft. 8J ins. being tall for Marathas, who are by race small of stature. Rawlinson had been away from the regiment for several years, during which period he had served in the Political and Diplomatic Services in Afghani- stan, and at the Court of the Shah of Persia. He retired from the Army in 1856, and in September 1858 became a Member of the Council of India and M.P. for Reigate. Later he was for many years a Member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India. He was made a baronet, and died in March 1895, leaving a son, who was created Baron Rawlinson as a reward for brilliant services BARODA 13 in the Great War, and at his death in 1925 held the post of Commander-in-Chief in India. When Sir Henry Rawlinson decided to leave the Grenadiers in 1856, he wrote to his old friend and comrade Colonel Stather, asking him to select an officer for the command of his old company. Sir Henry required an officer who was likely to evince the same interest as himself in the domestic and financial affairs of the men of his company. In compliance with this request Colonel Stather posted Ensign Walsh to command the company, regimen- tally known as Rawlinson's. That appointment did not carry with it any rise in rank, nor did it accelerate promotion ; but it marked and recorded the Commanding Officer's appreciation of the efficient services already exhibited by that ensign, and at the same time the latter was thereby qualified to draw two full allowances, totalling fifty rupees monthly, in addition to the pay of his military rank. My father carried out Rawlinson's policy, namely that Rawlinson always exercised his influence with the judges of local courts, and with collectors and the heads of provinces, to impede the efforts of the village sowcars (moneylenders) to foreclose the mortgages on the hereditary farms (Buttons] of these Maratha soldiers. For the men were recruited from both slopes of the Sayadri range of mountains, in which districts Brahmins possessed con- siderable influence and had frequently attempted to seduce Maratha sepoys from their allegiance to the Sirkar. The Brahmins' object was the ousting of the British as the para- mount power, and a first step towards making the Nana Sahib of Bithur ruler at Poona, thus restoring Brahmin supremacy in the Deccan. Rawlinson thought that by protecting and assisting the Maratha fighting man, Brahmin wiles and intrigues could be frustrated and rendered futile. The absolute correctness of these views was fully proved by the loyalty and devotion to duty shown by the men of this famous Maratha regiment during the mutiny of the Native Army in 1857. The ist Bombay Grenadiers had no kind of sympathy with the mutinous sepoys of the Bengal Army, or with the few disloyal men in two or three Bombay regiments. i 4 UNDER THE FLAG About May 1856 a couple of bungalows adjoining the native town, but actually within the limits of the British cantonment, were burned by some rascals from Baroda city, who unfortunately got away before they could be caught by the military police. These scoundrels were arrested by the Gaekwari police, and severely dealt with by the magistrates of the Baroda State. The people of Baroda not only showed no sympathy with these in- cendiaries, but openly expressed their approval of the punishments meted out to them by the Baroda Criminal Court. My father and mother resided close to the site of these outrages, and Colonel Stather, as a precautionary measure, ordered my father to vacate his quarters and take a bungalow nearer the regimental lines. Colonel Stather also instructed my father to equip his company fully, and keep it in readiness for field service at twenty-four hours' notice, the time judged as necessary to collect transport. My mother declined to go to Europe, but went to stay with the Collector of Surat, Mr. George Inverarity, I.C.S., who hospitably sheltered European women and children from all parts of Gujarat. She held a facile pen, and wrote weekly, under the heading of "Gujarat Gossip", social news- letters for the Bombay journals, in which contributions she often set forth her personal views of Baroda and Kutch affairs, as she saw and heard them in the zenana and behind the purdah. My father took a great interest in the affairs and the administration of the Baroda State, and published a book entitled Goo^erat and the Country of the Gulcowar. The book attracted the attention of the Political Department, and he came to be regarded as an authority on Baroda and its territory. He was offered a political assistantship in that residency, which post he was desirous of filling, but only on the understanding that he would be permitted to rejoin his regiment whenever he wished to do so. The civil and military authorities would not grant the condition asked for by my father, although he had frequently notified them of his preference for regimental employment. Neverthe- less, he had constantly acted for short periods in several BARODA 15 Civil offices. He often remarked to me that in early life he could easily have permanently joined a Civil department, but if he had done so it would have restricted and fettered his pen, and he had always intended to use both his pen and his sword during his career in India. My father was intimately acquainted with the Gaekwars of Baroda, their ministers, and the notables of Gujarat, up to the end of 1858. He was also on very confidential terms with Khan Bahadur Shahabuddin Kazi, then at Bhooj, but before and after a Minister of the Baroda Government. Through the aid and influence of this useful friend my father was able in his personal capacity to obtain valuable and reliable information upon various matters relating to Baroda, which he secretly and expedi- tiously communicated to the Governor and Members of the Council of Bombay. Towards the end of 1873 (after I had entered the service of Government on the yth April of that year) my father went to Baroda to make private inquiries regarding the misconduct of the Gaekwar's Brahmin servants of various grades. He took me with him, and thus early in my official career I gained considerable knowledge of Baroda and Gujarat affairs, and saw clearly enough that the Brahmins, even without making themselves too prominent, completely controlled the Gaekwar and the administration of his city and territory. This insight proved of great value to me in 1879, when I was in charge of a Kathiawar prant^ in which province there were several Gaekwari Mahals administered by Baroda officials, who also collected the tribute due to the Gaekwar by certain Kathiawar States. In 1879 I was appointed Acting Fourth Assistant Political Agent, in charge of the Jhalawad prant (division or province) of Kathiawar. This appointment was made by Sir Richard Temple, without the "particular sanction" of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, as required by Rule 33oC of the Civil Service Regulations. In 1880 I was squeezed out of this Fourth Assistantship by the return of the permanent holder of the post, Major H. L. Nutt. Major Nutt had been appointed to act for two years as First Assistant Resident, Baroda, but was removed from 16 UNDER THE FLAG that position for having, it was rumoured, personally assaulted the Resident, Mr. P. S. Melvill, I.C.S., in his residency. I was the sole sufferer by this ill-timed occurrence, inasmuch as it occasioned the cessation of my acting duties in Kathiawar, and thereby afforded the "Competition- Wallahs", then rising into power at the Secretariat, the desired opportunity of forcing me out of the Political Service. This opposition and hostility to the employment of an un- covenanted official in the higher posts of a Government department in India necessitated my rejoining the Marine Postal Service between Bombay and Suez. My patron, Sir Richard Temple, Governor of Bombay, heard of this hardship and predicament on about the 4th March, 1880, and he at once directed his chief secretary to re- arrange the duties of political officers in such a manner as would provide for Major Nutt elsewhere, without ousting me from the Kathiawar political agency. Sir Richard also asked the Government of India to allow me to act as First Assistant at Baroda vice Major Nutt, and instructed his private secretary, Mr. G. H. R. Hart, to tell me to stop at Baroda, on my way to Bombay, and call on Mr. Melvill, the Resident, to solicit his support to the proposal to transfer me to Baroda. Mr. Melvill when I called on him was not cordial, nor even officially courteous. He at once threw in my face that I was an uncovenanted officer, and as such ineligible by the regulations to hold a gazetted office in the Indian Political Service, from which I had been very properly ousted. He added that, after his recent experience with Major Nutt, he would oppose the appointment to Baroda of any officer of the Bombay Political Department. He did not offer me any hospitality, and allowed me to return to the railway station in the hired trap which I had picked up there to take me to the residency. I got a meal at the refreshment room, and took the first train to Bombay. Unfortunately for me, Sir Richard Temple had suddenly resigned the governorship, and left Bombay for Europe on the 1 3th March, 1 880. There was therefore no one person- ally to advise me as to my course of action, or to appeal BARODA 17 on my behalf to the local government. The Acting Governor, moreover, who was a covenanted Indian Civil Servant, declined to grant me a personal interview. About a month later Mr. Melvill went to Europe in the P. & O. mail steamer of which I happened to be the mail agent. Walking into my empty office on deck, Mr. Melvill took a chair without an invitation from anyone. I found him there, and at once asked him to leave the office, as passengers, unless guests of the mail agent, were not admitted into it. To me it seemed that I was getting quits with Mr. Melvill for his treatment of me in his residency ! I related the foregoing incident to Sir Richard Temple and to Sir Henry Rawlinson, as evidence of the hostility of covenanted civilians to those who are locally known as bearing the "mark of the beast". I suggested that it should be privately mentioned to the Secretary of State, and also to Sir James Fergusson, Bart., the outgoing Governor of Bombay. Sir Richard Temple mentioned this matter to Sir James. In 1889 General A. G. F. Hogg, C.B., Resident at Aden, showed me a personal letter he had received, asking him to ascertain from me if I desired to act as First Assistant Resident at Baroda. The General observed that if I accepted the offer I would be serving under my cousin, Sir Harry Prendergast, V.C. ; and that, no doubt, I needed a change to comparatively healthy India, after so long a service in the exhausting climate of Aden and on the Somali coast. I replied that I wanted promotion in the Aden residency. I explained that I applied to go to India for the limited period of six months, and made it clear that I desired to continue at Aden as the permanent Second Assistant. The reason for this was that, being on the spot, the consulship and administratorship of Berbera and Zeila would fall to me in ordinary routine, when as Second Assistant I became the First Assistant Resident of Aden. The First Assistant Resident was always ex officio H.B.M/s consul and the political agent for the Somali coast, but if at any time the Foreign Office handed over Somaliland to the British Colonial Office, Indian political officers would no longer be employed in Somahland. If, therefore, I B 1 8 UNDER THE FLAG were there, or at Aden, as the de facto First Assistant when the actual transfer took place, I was practically certain to become a permanent servant of the British Foreign Office, a position which I desired to hold. It would, consequently, not suit me to quit the service of the Aden residency, and I would rather remain his (General Hogg's) permanent Second Assistant, and have his support for my claim to become H.B.M.'s representative in Somaliland when that post fell vacant, than to go to Baroda as First Assistant, or to any assistantship elsewhere in India. In May 1893 General Hogg said that he had already written to Major Evelyn Baring, H.B.M.'s Consul-General in Egypt. General Hogg added that he had personally seen Mr. Julian Pauncefoot (and also had written to him, for demi-official record at the Foreign Office in London) about my future employment under the British Govern- ment. I could only thank General Hogg for his great kindness to me, and asked him to stop privately my being offered the Baroda opening, as I had no desire to have placed on record my refusal of that appointment, acting or permanent. CHAPTER HI "A STRONG MAN ARMED" I WAS brought up from my earliest childhood by Colonel and Mrs. Stather, who, after my mother's death at sea on the z6th March, 1862, were my guardians, and with whom I resided for many years. This dear, lovable old couple regarded me as their son. Mrs. Stather had no children of her own, and Colonel Stather's four daughters by his first marriage were grown up and out in the world. In these circumstances, during my boyhood I gradually acquired from my guardians some appreciation of the political affairs, conditions, and ideas of western India. Colonel Stather died on the 2yth February, 1893, and I had in that year completed over twenty years' service under Government. During that period I was frequently on leave in England, and I always visited him at his home in Gloucestershire. I sought his opinions on a variety of Indian subjects. For instance, I specially asked his views on the exercise by the East India Company of the laws of "Adoption" and "Lapse", and, as it happened, I had at that time to deal personally with some cases of "Adoption". His replies were very apposite, and of considerable help to me. Colonel Stather was an experienced officer, who thor- oughly understood native ways and their mode of thought; moreover, he was an untiring student of the history of India. In 1 8 5 3, at Baroda, my mother had taken the only suitable bungalow available, which, unfortunately, was situated near the cantonment boundary, neighbouring the city. The distance from the lines and the mess-house made this abode inconvenient, but on the other hand it was a com- modious and comfortable residence. Here on the 2 3 rd May, 1854, my mother gave birth to her first child a strong, healthy infant, who received the names of Spencer John 20 UNDER THE FLAG George Walsh. The orderly, Raghoo, was specially devoted to this baby. However, notwithstanding the skill of the regimental surgeon-major (Dr. Stile), and the loving care of the mother and Mrs. Stather, Spencer succumbed to croup on the 20th August, 1855. Colonel and Mrs. Stather, and Raghoo, have told me that my mother's grief was terrible to behold. Although she was in bad health, she insisted (contrary to Dr. Stile's advice) on going to the cemetery, and was driven to the child's grave by Mrs. Stather, instead of making use of the Resident's or the Gaekwar's carriage. Major Stather and my father carried the dead child's coffin to the grave ; and the orderlies, Raghoo and Abdool, attended the funeral in full uniform, saluting the coffin as it was being lowered to its last resting-place. Neither of these men had ever previ- ously witnessed a Christian burial, but when they observed the mourners sprinkling earth on the coffin they did like- wise. Major Stather, in speaking of these two Grenadier privates (one a Maratha, the other a Deccani Mohammedan), said that, although different from us in race, colour, and creed, they allowed no caste rules or prejudices to interfere with the public exhibition of their love and devotion to my parents. The fact remains that there was a strong bond of union between them and my father, owing to both being soldiers ; and they sympathized with him and with Mrs. Walsh, as the wife of a young Jung Bahadur Sahib. I was my mother's second child, and arrived about ten months before Colonel and Mrs. Stather retired on pension to Europe in 1856. A great intimacy and firm friendship had sprung up between my mother and Mrs. Stather. I had only a few infantile maladies, nevertheless my mother was anxious to send me to England, and for her sake Mrs. Stather offered to take care of me. This was a great relief to my mother, and Major Stather assured my father that as he and Mrs. Stather had no child of their own, he would like to take charge of me and bring me up with the soldiering instincts of a Grenadier. My father was delighted with this arrangement, which both before and * after my mother's death was carried out until I was sent to school in France. "A STRONG MAN ARMED" 21 My mother lost her third child, George Inverarity Walsh (born the yth October, 1857 ; died the 23rd May, 1859), and, being seriously ill herself, started for England, taking me and the orderly, Raghoo, with her. I see, in a letter written by Lady George Houlton, that we arrived direct from Southampton at her residence in Somersetshire on the ist November, 1859. From there we went to see Colonel and Mrs. Stather at their hospitable home at Woodchester, near Stroud, and in their care I was to be placed, after my mother had shown me to her father in Ireland and to my paternal grandfather in England. These inspections and introductions completed, I was taken charge of by my mother's aunt, Miss Ellen Slator, Raghoo remaining in attendance on my mother, or making himself useful to her father at his rectory, while she paid visits to her friends and relations in Ireland and in England. It had been arranged that Raghoo would return to India with my mother on the ist October, 1860, and until that date he stayed with Colonel Stather. Being unable to talk English, he kept up my knowledge of "bad" Hindustani, or, as he called that language, "Laskhari". My mother started for India on the date fixed, and I remained with my great-aunt, Miss Ellen Slator, daughter of the Rector of Naas and of Tonyn, County Longford. I reached Woodchester in April 1861. Colonel Stather took me in hand at once, telling me that he intended to make me a Grenadier. That intention had rejoiced Raghoo, and made him predict that one day I would com- mand that famous pultan. Years later Colonel Stather told me that Raghoo said : "May I be spared to see the Baba Sahib dress a company of our old regiment, and may he command the corps." Colonel Stather put me up on a pony, and taught me to ride and to jump that handy little animal over bushes and obstacles erected in the paddock, and I soon got over the falling-off stage. Colonel Stather attached the greatest importance to the noble art of self-defence. He pointed out the advantage of hitting straight from the shoulder, and of knowing how to use the point of a sword. He held that it was never too early to teach these zz UNDER THE FLAG exercises to a child, and daily I was put through a regular curriculum of defensive and offensive methods and tactics. When I was about six years of age Miss Emily Stather (who had taught me my alphabet) asked her father to let me read to him a few verses of the Bible. He consented, afterwards patting me on the head and giving me sixpence. But at the same time he observed : "That is no doubt useful, but it is more essential to be able to hit hard with your fists, and to use a sword or spear, mounted or on foot. With that equipment a man can make his way and earn his crust anywhere as an efficient man-at-arms under the British fllag." Four years of Colonel Stather's method of training made me for my age, she, and weight a formidable opponent. Once two village boys attacked me, one bigger an d the other smaller than myself. However, I stood to fight it out, and systematically went for my biggest adversary. Eventually I knocked him down, and there was no more fight left in him. My smaller opponent ran away, but not before I had been severely punished by this little imp. I had started off in pursuit of my smaller antagonist, when Colonel Stather appeared and called me back. I remon- strated by saying, "That cowardly devil has got off scot- free, as I was quite unable to devote any of my attention to him." Colonel Stather said, "That is so, but the day is yours. You have nearly killed the chap you have laid out, and we shall have serious trouble with his parents. Fortunately, however, there are several women witnesses, who will testify as to who caused, commenced, and provoked the fight." I replied, "Both boys laughed at and ridiculed my clothes. I took no notice of their impudence, but then the big fellow hit me and observed, 'Take that !' which I did, on my nose !" "My dear Langton," the Colonel answered, "you have behaved well. But what I liked best of all is your judgment in going at all costs to yourself for the big chap. I shall write and tell your father that you are shaping very well to become a Grenadier." Colonel Stather led me off to the kitchen, and asked the cook to wash me up and place some raw meat over my "A STRONG MAN ARMED" 23 eyes and on my cuts and bruises. Mrs. Stather happened to come into the kitchen, and seeing my condition, and my two lovely black eyes, scolded her husband, accusing him of teaching and encouraging me to fight. The Colonel said, "You are a little unfair, Mary. Langton was gratuitously attacked, and defended himself skilfully, in a way which becomes the son of a gentleman." The Colonel was bundled out of the kitchen, and I was petted and patched up. I was then told not to fight, which I had no occasion to do again at Woodchester, as I was never molested by any boy in the village. Although only a young child, I thoroughly understood Colonel Stather's precepts and advice, namely not to bully anyone, but at once and resolutely to resent anyone, big or small, who tried to bully me. As the Colonel pointed out, if I was known to possess the character for prompt action in such cases, I should always be left in peace. The whole of my experience has convinced me of the correctness of my guardian's ideas. They were identical with the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ on the subject of "a strong man armed" (see St. Luke xi, 21, and xxii, 36), and should be instilled into every child. Holding such views, Colonel Stather insisted on my being trained as a child to box and to use a sword. I made a point, whenever in England, of visiting my old friend and guardian at Woodchester. In 1882-83 I came home after the campaign in Egypt, having been mentioned in despatches, much to the delight of Colonel Stather and his wife. Sir Herbert MacPherson, command- ing the Indian Regiment in Egypt, suggested to the Military Secretary, Colonel Dillon, that a commission should be tendered to me. At my age it would have been folly for me to accept it. Nevertheless, the official offer of a commission served to strengthen my case, as Sir Henry Rawlinson could use Sir Herbert's despatch in support of my claim on the Government of India for my restoration to the Political Service. This Her Most Gracious Majesty had been pleased to order, but that reward did not terminate the opposition of the trade union corps in Bombay. 24 UNDER THE FLAG Mrs. Mary Caruthers Stather, aged 73 years, died at Woodchester on the 24th September, 1884, and is buried in the churchyard of that parish. Lieut.-Colonel William Carlisle Stather, aged 85 years, died on the 2yth February, 1893, and is buried alongside his wife. CHAPTER IV BOYHOOD DAYS NEARLY every year I visited both of my grandfathers. My mother's father, the Reverend William Spencer Walsh, D.D., had served in a Dragoon regiment before taking Holy Orders. When he discovered that I could ride and box, he had the highest admiration of Colonel Stather's methods of bringing me up. The old man was himself a horseman of repute, and in his youth had been a member of the Kilruddery Hunt. I also stayed with my paternal grandfather, the Reverend John Prendergast Walsh, M.A., who had served with the 95th Rifles (now the Rifle Brigade) at Waterloo, and had changed his green jacket for the more sedate raiments and robes of an evangelical cleric of the Church of England. He was known on retirement from the Service as "Timber- leg", and had left the Army for the express purpose of oppos- ing Puseyism on the platform and in the pulpit. He was the owner of the advowson of a church-living in Somerset- shire, but did not himself hold a benefice. He resided per- manently abroad, chiefly in France, visiting England during the summer months of each year. This grandfather took a house called "Les Tourelles" (the old semaphore station), in the Boulevard du Sud, at Avranches, in Normandy. I was placed as an externe at the Lycee Imperiale. There were no English boys at this college, where I rapidly learned to speak French fluently and with the same pro- nunciation as spoken by my camarades cfecole. My grandfather was very intimate with an old Napoleonic officer called Le Capitaine Comte de Soule. This gentleman belonged to the noblesse^ and owned a small estate in Brittany. He hated the Napoleonists, and when asked why he had so loyally served the great Napoleon, he used to reply, "Mafoi, H etait soldat !" 26 UNDER THE FLAG My grandparents had to go on business to England for a few weeks. Not knowing what to do with me, they placed me as an interne in the Lycee Imperiale. There a boy rather bigger and physically stronger than myself called me "un cochon d? Anglais" ; and no doubt in reply I expressed my opinion of him individually, and of his compatriots generally. At any rate, my remarks infuriated all present against me, but fortunately I had closed with my opponent, to prevent his coups de pied reaching me, and I took his head into "chancery" with my right arm. My many assailants beat me very severely about the head, right shoulder and arms, in order to make me let go. But I hung on, and bore the consequent punishment. By attacking me on my right side, they allowed me entire freedom to play with my left fist, with which I planted a succession of well-directed blows above and below the eyes, and on the nose and mouth of the Mew. My opponent could not shake me off, and I presented him with several souvenirs, nearly all delivered on the same spot, until I became exhausted by my own efforts. When we were separated by some of the under-masters, I was marched off and placed before the proviseur, who heard the complaint made against me and saw the bruised features of my late opponent. The proviseur, without hearing me at all, called me "un maroufle" and "un enfant terrible et feroce", and threatened me with solitary confine- ment. The concierge, however (to whom my grandfather had occasionally given a douceur, with an injunction to look after me), seeing that I had got into serious trouble, com- municated at once with Captain Soule, my grandfather's old friend, who had brought me to the Lycee Imperiale. Captain Soule thereupon drove at once to the college, and was shown into the room in which the proviseur was holding forth on my brutality. Captain Soule listened to this tirade, and then asked for explanations. Seeing that I had a friend to take my part, I exhibited my injuries, rolling up the sleeve of my bloodstained shirt and showing my right shoulder. I also drew attention to the lumps and clots of blood on my head, of which the proviseur had not been aware, or BOYHOOD DAYS 27 had not chosen to notice. Captain Soule therefore asked for my version of the fracas, and it received some corrobor- ative evidence from obviously hostile witnesses. I was allowed to go, and sent to be cared for by the Sisters who conducted the college infirmary. There I was treated with the greatest kindness, being called "un pauvre petit" without a mother, and whose father was in India. These circumstances gained me a lot of sympathy, and Madame, the wife of the proviseur^ who regularly visited the sick-wards of the infirmary, was brought by one of the Sisters to see me. This lady was very kind, and as I was the only English boy in the college, she had heard all about me, and announced at once that her husband was quite wrong in styling me "un enfant terrible et feroce". I was asked to come and see her and her daughter as soon as I was discharged from the infirmary. I accepted, and often availed myself of that kind and hospitable invitation. Moreover, now that I was personally known to Monsieur le Proviseur I got on very well with him, but I have often wondered what would have happened to me if Captain Soule had not been there to protect me. At the beginning of 1865, or late in 1864, I left the Lyce"e at Avranches, and after a short stay with Colonel Stather at Woodchester I was sent to Davenport's School at 20, Rue de Maguetra, Boulogne-sur-Mer. Some months later I went to Avranches again, for the express purpose of visiting Captain Soule, to hear his reminiscences of the Napoleonic Wars, in which he had been engaged, his stories of Waterloo, the Campaign of 1815, and his partings with the great Emperor at Fontainebleau and Malmaison. Early in March 1865, or late in 1864, I left the Lycee. I bade adieu to Captain Soule, who put me in the dili- gence for Granville, where I took a passage on board the s.s. Comet for Southampton. She touched at Jersey and Guernsey, and landed me after a very comfortable passage at my destination. Although only a young child, yet, by always having to find my own way about, I had become an experienced traveller; and, taking a cab at Waterloo, I had no difficulty in getting to Netting Hill Gate, where my father, late in 1862, had taken a furnished house, which 28 UNDER THE FLAG he had placed in charge of his sister, Miss Euphemia Walsh, who later became the wife of Captain Townsend Tyndall of the Bombay Army. My aunt had the care of my two sisters and her father, the Reverend J. Prendergast Walsh, and his wife ; while my mother's aunt, Miss Ellen Slator, the daughter of the Reverend James Slator, of Tonyn, Co. Longford, and Vicar of Naas, was constantly staying with her. While at Woodchester with the Stathers I frequently came up to see my relatives, and also my father and his second wife. And as a small boy I met at my aunt's house several notable and interesting people. In 1864 she took my sisters to Boulogne-sur-Mer, and later on to Paris. My father and his wife entertained a good deal. And as they kept a mail phaeton and a pair of horses, I was often taken to the Park by my stepmother and introduced to my father's friends and acquaintances in many parts of London. Although, in fact, an infant at the time, yet I recollect the names of some of those who frequently came to my father's house. I did not, of course, understand the subjects which were often discussed in my presence, but I have since studied the bearings of some of them from my father's papers. General Sir Robert Napier, R.E., was a frequent visitor. Later he became Commander-in-Chief, Bombay, and conducted the operations during the campaign in Abyssinia. In recognition of his war service, he was raised to the peerage as Baron of Magdala and Caryngton. I remember the Princess Victoria Guaramma, daughter of the Raja of Coorg. The Princess was a Christian and a godchild of H.M. Queen Victoria. She married a Colonel John Campbell, of the 38th Madras Native Infantry. She was always handsomely dressed, and wore valuable jewellery. She frequently took me to the Park in her well-appointed carriage, and loaded me with presents and large packets of sweets. In consequence, when up from Woodchester, I never failed to let her know of my presence in London. The Princess died in 1864, and there is a curious story BOYHOOD DAYS 29 regarding her husband's fate. My father was well acquain- ted with Colonel Campbell, and both were members of the Oriental Club, Hanover Square, London. Colonel Campbell was seen to enter that club on the yth August, 1867, but no evidence of his leaving it could be traced. My father never had any reason for supposing that Colonel Campbell was hard up, but during his wife's lifetime he once observed to my father : "The Princess has a quantity of valuable gems, rings, stones, and pearls, which are useless to her, but for sentimental reasons and traditions she does not desire to sell them." My father said it was generally supposed that, after the death of Princess Victoria, some, if not the whole, of these costly articles had passed person- ally to Colonel Campbell, and it had been suggested that, as one of the gems in his possession was the stolen eye of an idol, the chief pugari of the temple owning that idol desired to restore this precious stone to the place from which it had been removed. This gem, being the property of neither the State nor the last reigning Raja of Coorg, could not, therefore, be legally retained in the safe keeping of his daughter, the Princess Victoria of Coorg. There is absolutely no evidence to support this tale, but a novel called The Moonstone refers to a story of a some- what similar nature. It would be quite feasible to send an emissary to London to recover, by fair means or foul, the sacred idol's lost eye, especially as in this case it was known that Colonel Campbell was not unwilling to sell some, or all, of the jewellery in his custody. In such circumstances it would be quite a simple matter to invite him to bring this particular gem for the inspection of a potential purchaser ; while if he had been thus enticed to exhibit that jewel, he could have been easily murdered, and his body secretly buried or burned, with little risk to the perpetrators of such a crime. The Maharajah Dhulip Singh, the son of Rumjit Singh, "the lion of the Punjab", constantly came to my father's house to consult him about his claims, debts, and difficulties. My father personally endeavoured to induce the Secretary of State, the Prime Minister, and other influ- ential personages to relieve the Maharajah of his debts, and 30 UNDER THE FLAG to increase his annual pension. I did not see the Maharajah Dhulip Singh again until he was detained by the Secretary of State's orders at Aden in 1886, when he told me of his impoverished condition and his inability to get any kind of redress from the British Government. Dhulip Singh said to me : "I have often used the examples and arguments which your father contended should govern my 'case and claims'." Shortly before his death I wrote to several senior officials at the India Office, with whom I was personally acquainted, to get the Maharajah a pittance for the relief of his immediate necessities. However, nothing was done for him. He died in abject poverty in Paris, on the 23rd October, 1893. Mr. Harris Prendergast, Q.C., a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, was closely related to my father. I was taken to his house to be introduced to my cousin, and my first observa- tion to him was : "You are the first Prendergast cousin I have ever seen." In reply he tipped me ten shillings, and desired me not to forget him. I never did, and my sisters and I often went to have tea at his house in Talbot Square, Paddington. Mr. Harris Prendergast was a student of and an expert adviser on, all matters connected with the rights and privileges of military officers. His knowledge on that question is disclosed in his book entitled The Law delating to Officers in the Army. On the death in 1868 of Mr. Davenport, the principal of the school I attended at Boulogne-sur-Mer, my class- master, Monsieur Destre, had to find employment as an under-teacher in some other school. Having an eye to business, it struck him that he could easily obtain the post he required by offering his services to Monsieur Le Petit, the proprietor and principal of the school at 15, Rue Flauhaut. He could also casually let drop to that peda- gogue that, although nearly all Mr. Davenport's pupils were returning to England, yet he believed ten or twelve English boys desired to continue their studies under him in France,'? and that several of the latter would in all probability join the school in which he had the promise of employment. Monsieur Le Petit readily "tumbled" BOYHOOD DAYS 31 to this suggestion, and on the spot offered to Monsieur Destre the same status in his school as he had held under Mr. Davenport. I at once wrote to Colonel Stather, asking to be placed at Monsieur Le Petit's school, as the best way of keeping up my knowledge of that language. My guardian assented to this view, and accordingly arranged to have me transferred to 15, Rue de Flauhaut. At Davenport's school we wore plain clothes ; but at Le Petit's school all the pupils were attired in the tenue of a French ecole, or college, the sole difference being the device on the buttons of our garments. In a few days I was dressed as un eleve, with a kepi, a dark blue jacket, waistcoat and trousers to match, and was quite delighted with my uniform. At Boulogne I met a remarkable and well-known man, by name Mr. Launcelot Peyton, who for years was very kind to me, and took me about with him everywhere. He lived at Boulogne with his wife, and, having no children, they desired to adopt me altogether. They went so far as to approach Colonel Stather and my paternal grand- mother with that proposal, which, of course, could not be entertained. At the same time, however, it was so genuine and so nicely made that they both thanked Mr. Peyton for it ; and they were very glad that I had such a good and desirable friend during my lonely schooldays in France. I never heard Mr. Launcelot Peyton himself claim any military rank, but he was always addressed as Captain, or Colonel, or even General Peyton, and he was supposed to have had a regular commission in the American Confederate Army. He had been a man of large wealth, the owner of several plantations worked by two or three thousand slaves. He never sold or bought a slave, but they bred naturally on his large landed estates, where each one had a hut and a "cabbage patch". "Colonel" Peyton, as I have always called him, lost in the service of the Southern Confederacy the whole of his immense fortune and property, and it was only by an exceptional stroke of pure good luck that he recovered a considerable portion of the money he had advanced to the cause of the Southern 32 UNDER THE FLAG States in their war against the Northern States of the Union. Colonel Peyton was sent to Europe to arrange for the conveyance by "blockade runners" of stores for the Confederate Government. For that purpose he had a large sum of money in London under his sole control, but was suddenly instructed by his Government to cease all operations on their behalf, and to apply the money in part payment of the debt due to him. By this means he came into possession of funds, which he invested, and lived on the income derived from that source, which I estimate as yielding several thousand pounds per annum. CHAPTER V ODSEY GRANGE AND COWLEY MY father took a lease of Odsey Grange, an old-fashioned but commodious house situated about half-way between Baldock and Royston, and about two miles by road from the village of Ashwell. Mr. Herbert Fordham, of Odsey House, owned the Grange, also a large number of acres around it, on which game was preserved and afforded ex- cellent sport. My father and his wife attended the "meets" of the various packs of hounds in the vicinity, and he was invited by the neighbouring landowners to shoot in their preserves. I spent my holidays at Odsey Grange, and had a good time there. Many hunting men, seeing that I could ride, lent me a mount whenever I wanted one ; moreover, as my father had three hunters, and two other crocks, I rarely lacked a nag to ride. A Mr. Nash, who maintained a pack of harriers (this gentleman, later, I believe, married Miss Constance Fordham of Odsey House), and the two brothers Merry of Guilden Morden, kept a number of hunters, while a Mr. Gentil, pork butcher and horse-dealer, nearly always had a "likely nag" for sale. From one or other of these stables I could always get a mount for a meet. Mr. Gentil, however, made it a condition that I should not injure his animal's feet on a hard road. My visits to Odsey Grange gave me an insight into English rural life and etiquette with a pack in the field, of whith I had no previous knowledge. It also taught me to ride and stick on the back of a horse, which experience was of great service to me during my varied career in the East. My father accompanied me to Cowley College, Oxford, in July or August 1869. On arrival there he was told that the principal resided in Oxford, and was not then on the 33 r* 34 UNDER THE FLAG premises. However, the head master, the Reverend J. G. Watts, M.A., would see us in about ten minutes, when he came out of the classroom. Sergeant Kent, a drill instructor and in charge of the college batmen, was obviously an old soldier. He had met us at the door, and invited my father to follow the maid to the matron's parlour, where Kent handed the matron my father's card. The matron was a handsome, middle-aged widow, and received us politely. She suggested that while we waited for the head master and chaplain, Sergeant Kent should show my father over the premises, which consisted of the Old House, the brick buildings, and the new (stone) buildings and chapel. My father tipped Kent a sovereign, and said to him : "Look after my boy, Sergeant. He has been brought up in schools in France, and no doubt has some foreign ways and manners. He is therefore likely to be teased, laughed at, and possibly bullied. Now I don't want you, or anyone, to interfere on his behalf. He can take very good care of himself, and has been shown and trained since four years of age to use his fists. It will surprise me if a boy of his size, weight, and age can take him on successfully even a bigger one will soon find out what he is up against." Sergeant Kent suggested that I should be placed in the Gloucestershire room, where my companions would be Mr. Chetwynd and two brothers named Boyes, sons of a rector whose brother was an admiral. Sergeant Kent regarded these boys as desirable "nobs". His daughter, Constance, a girl of about nineteen years of age, was the chambermaid of the Gloucestershire room, and my father gave her a small present. Thus, from my start at Cowley, I secured two very useful and devoted friends. My father had a short interview with Mr. Watts, who introduced us to his wife, and it appeared to me that I should get on very well with the head master. We were conducted back to the matron's parlour, and Sergeant Kent had told us that she was a near relative of the principal. Moreover, her son, who resided with his mother and attended the college classes, was French in all respects, his deceased father having been a French Army officer, who had been an ODSEY GRANGE AND COWLEY 35 A.D.C. and assistant private secretary to the Governor- General of French Algeria. After my father had left the college to catch a train for London, as the quickest way of getting back to Odsey Grange, I wandered alone into the quadrangle and play- ground. There, of course, I was spotted as a "new boy", and had to stand a little good-natured chaff. One boy, however, insisted on calling me "Frenchy", and "a d frog-eater". I assured him that I was Irish, but had been educated in France, and that I had no relish for the delicacy to which he had alluded. Nevertheless, he repeated the above abusive epithets, and it struck me that my new comrades were watching to see if I would put up with it. In these circumstances, I felt compelled to act. I said to my aggressor : "I have already told you that I am not French. But since you persist in disbelieving me on that point, I must provide you with evidence in support of my assertion." I made that remark calmly, and with- out exhibiting any heat or temper. He himself then struck out at me, and I lost no time in returning the attack. As he had exposed himself, I landed him a right-hander between the eyes, and, being the taller and stronger, he tried to close with me. At that, by good luck, I caught him fairly with my left. The weight of this blow, added to his own impetus, upset his equilibrium and caused him to fall sideways. Getting up speedily, he gallantly renewed the fight. He attempted to rush me, and, thereby again exposing himself, he received three or four well-placed left-handers at close quarters. By those scientifically planted blows he was completely beaten, and gave up the fight. My opponent's injuries had to be attended to in the infirmary, but there was no bad blood between us, and we soon became very intimate and dear friends. Here I may observe that during the rest of my time at Cowley I never had occasion to fight anyone. I owed my success to Colonel Stathers' training and principles, which, besides being sound, are those of a gentleman. Sergeant Kent witnessed the fight from afar, but, recollecting my father's wishes, he did not attempt to stop 36 UNDER THE FLAG it, as it was his duty to do. After the scrimmage was over, he went to report it to the Reverend England, the master on duty for the day, and stated the facts of the case faith- fully enough, but also placed them in a favourable light for me. I had evidently gone up in Sergeant Kent's estimation. A little later he came to me and, saluting in the correct Service way, said : "Mr. England, the senior class-master of division two, wishes to see you, sir." He conducted me to the master's parlour, where I found the Rev. Mr. England seated in a chair at his writing-table. I put my heels together, saluted, and then stood at attention in French fashion. Mr. England said : "You have been fighting. Are you not aware that fighting is absolutely prohibited ?" I respectfully denied that I had been fighting, pointing out that my clothes were not even deranged. I then explained that a boy had called me a "frog-eating Frenchy", and would not believe my assertion that I was Irish. I was therefore, I said, compelled to provide evidence of the truth of my statement, and the boy was no longer in doubt of my Celtic origin. Mr. England smiled and said : "You must never again furnish that kind of evidence here." I apologized, and expressed regret at having transgressed the rules of the college. Whereupon Mr. England invited me to sit down and explain how and where I had been brought up. I told him, and was glad to have so early an opportunity of doing so. There were three other under-masters in the room, one of them the professor of French. He spoke to me in his own language, and engaged me in conversation. Then, suddenly taking up a French book, he directed me to read from it the paragraph he had indicated. I readily complied, and monsieur declared that I should be put in the highest French class. I wanted to translate into English what I had read out, but I was not allowed to do so, although I protested I could render the passages in question. Mr. England answered me : "It is not necessary, as we all see, from the way you delivered them, that you thoroughly understood what you had read out." Monsieur also added : "Your knowledge of French would, under ordinary circumstances, put you at the top of the first class. But ODSEY GRANGE AND COWLEY 37 I regret to tell you that, in my opinion, you will only take the second place. It will, I dare say, be a near thing, and as regards general knowledge you are a long way above your rival. The latter, however, happens to be French, and was educated entirely in France. He is also older than you, so you will stand little or no chance against him." I replied : "I have already met the pupil to whom you allude, and fully realize that he will be above me in the French class. I am really sorry at this misfortune, as now I shall not have the satisfaction of being certain of the top place of any class in the college." A bell rang, and, apologizing to the professor, I said, "Voila le tambour." The three Englishmen in the room were sufficiently con- versant of French to know that "tambour" meant a drum, but they considered me "dotty" until the professor explained to them that in French lycees bells, bugles, and trumpets were not used, all commands and directions being announced by beat or tap of the drum. I said good night to all present, and thought I had not created a bad impression on my new masters. Mr. England told me to see him the next day in the second division classroom half an hour before the pupils assembled there, and he would then examine me to decide as to the division and class in which he would recommend the head master to place me. I went off to bed in the Gloucestershire room, where I made the acquaintance of three very jolly stable com- panions. With one of them, Herbert Chetwynd, I have been a lifelong friend, and he was a constant visitor at my home until his death. The other two I lost sight of. I had a large cake and a quantity of fruit in my valise, which Constance had not disturbed, and I proceeded to share these "good things" with my new friends. I had been cautioned by Sergeant Kent that feasting in the bedrooms was against the regulations, and that a sneaking underling might creep upstairs to catch and report us. I told Chetwynd of this danger, and he said : "Yes, most probably. But we can frustrate an attempt to catch us. I have a plentiful supply of broken nutshells to strew on each of the treads of the staircase ; and I have also placed some other obstacles for a sneak to blunder over, thereby 5 8 UNDER THE FLAG warning us of his presence." Probably these precautions protected us. Be that as it may, we ate our cake in peace. Next morning, however, the chambermaid complained of the mess we had made, which, if not cleared up at once, would get all of us into trouble with the head master. We expressed sorrow and gave her a liberal supply of cake, and it restored her equanimity. At Cowley College Mr. England befriended me in many ways, giving me some sound and useful advice, which I have followed with success to myself. I recollect his observing to me : "Memory and power to retain in the brain knowledge acquired by reading is very limited, especially as regards the details of an intricate subject. My advice to you, therefore, is not to waste time with questions unlikely to arise, but to be always mindful of where to refer and to find full particulars of any matter. Supply yourself on starting in life with a small portable reference library, and add to it whenever circumstances permit you to do so. Endeavour to gain experience as a scribe by writing paragraphs and announcements for the Press, but don't expect to be paid for such contributions. If you can induce an editor to publish your communica- tions|in the columns of his newspaper, it will amply repay you in the end. Endeavour, also, to become known as an authority on some particular subject or country. . . ." I have invariably followed and benefited by that advice. Cowley has no connection with the Cowley Fathers, beyond the fact that some members of that fraternity resided in that hamlet. In my own time there, for some reason or other, the villagers made an effigy, and intended to burn it on Bullingdon Green, close to the Cowley College cricket ground. The boys, as a whole, resented the burn- ing of an effigy of a minister of any religion ; but I believe I took a leading part in driving off the villagers, and in effecting the rescue of the effigy from its intended fate at the hands of these ignorant peasants. I obtained reinforce- ments from the college to recover the effigy, and we hung on to it and drove off our assailants. Mr. England highly approved of my views and action, as being what he called very proper behaviour in the matter. ODSEY GRANGE AND COWLEY 39 There was no Cowley College Rowing Club, but several of the pupils had their own boats at Sandford Lock. There we could always hire an old "eight" for a scratch crew. On condition that we rejoined by train on the i6th July, 1870, some of us obtained permission to go downstream in the "eight" we had hired, and of which I was coxswain. We arranged to stop for two or three nights on the trip at River Bank Inn, and to hand over our boat to Messum, at Richmond, who would send it back by barge to Sandford. We arrived at Richmond and put up at the Talbot Hotel, facing the bridge. My grandfather and my father frequented that hotel, and for many years sat with a coterie of their friends, drinking port wine in a window over- looking the bridge. I should here mention that when I went to Cowley I had already some experience of boating, thanks to the kindness of some of my father's friends. At different times on the Thames I had learned to pull and feather an oar and generally to handle a boat, as well as how and to what part of a boat or barge a tow-line should be made fast for haulage purposes. It was entirely owing to such knowledge and experience that I was specially mentioned in the despatches of the Egyptian Campaign of 1882, while it was, of course, very useful to me at Cowley. Except on the Liane at Boulogne, where I merely paddled about anyhow, I never had any other kind of boat training. To return to the occasion of the jaunt of the Cowley eight on the i6th July, 1870. Each member of the crew wore the college cap, tie, and blazer, and, as I have said, we put up at the "Talbot", Richmond. There we were seated in the bar-room facing the street, when a foreigner went up to the counter and asked for a drink, which the barmaid handed to him. The foreigner then emptied on to the bar counter the contents of his overcoat pockets. I happened to notice that he had a watch-chain in the buttonhole of his great-coat, which he let loose. As the bar of his chain got through the buttonhole of his overcoat, no doubt he intended to place it (I presume it had a watch attached) on the counter, together with the pile of other 40 UNDER THE FLAG articles from his pockets. Walking across the room, he hung up his greatcoat and then returned to the bar. Upon failing to see his watch, without making any search he rushed into the street and fetched in a constable of police. He accused the barmaid of having stolen his watch, which she denied ever having seen. The con- stable had no legal right to interfere, but this peeler marched off both the complainant and the accused to the nearest police-station. The crew of the Cowley eight followed ; and I acted to some extent as an interpreter, and wholly as an indignant spectator of the illegal arrest of an English girl without a warrant from a magistrate. The superintendent in charge of the station saw at once that the policeman had exceeded his duty ; neverthe- less, he endeavoured to shield the erring constable. The foreigner, who turned out to be a Frenchman, insisted that the barmaid should be locked up. That, of course, the superintendent could not do, and he finally referred the complainant to the court, as the charge was not cognizable by a policeman who had not himself seen the theft com- mitted and whose information was derived from the complainant's unsupported statement of the case. The court-house in question, where the petty sessions were being held, was in Paradise Road, Richmond. I was slightly acquainted with Mr. Francis (or Lt.- Colonel Sir Francis) Burdett, Bart., J.P., of Ancaster House, Richmond, a magistrate for the Richmond Division of Surrey, who happened to be in the vicinity of the police- station. I went up to him and explained the circumstances, but he said that until the case came up before the Bench he could not intervene in any way. Nevertheless, he spoke to the superintendent, and a little later the superintendent told the barmaid that she was free to go. This announce- ment was greeted with cheers by the members of the Cowley eight, and, indeed, by the crowd generally, and we escorted the maid back in triumph to the Talbot Hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Grunhold, the proprietors, thanked me profusely, and always attributed the release of their barmaid, and the hushing-up of the case, to my efforts in the matter. Their gratitude, indeed, was somewhat embarrassing, as ODSEY GRANGE AND COWLEY 41 till the day of their death they would not allow me to pay for anything I might order in the hotel. The crew afterwards sat down to dinner, and decided that when they had handed the "eight" over to Messum whose store for boats, in those days, was under one of the arches of Richmond Bridge they would return next morning by an early train to Oxford. Later, the waiter came to the smoking-room with a telegram for me from my father. My father was then in lodgings in South Moulton Street ; his wife, with her mother, was at Ealing. The telegram ran : "Come at once to see me here." I managed to get to London that night, and the decision then made altered my intended career. Since then over fifty-five years have elapsed. Do I regret the decision ? No, I would act similarly now, with all my experiences. CHAPTER VI WAR CLOUDS ON my reaching London the night of the i6th July, 1870, my father told me it seemed to him that war between France and Prussia was now inevitable, as the French Minister had actually left Berlin. The French people demanded the immediate invasion of Germany, and this enterprise was supported by Marshal Le Bceuf, Chief of Staff of the French Army, and in attendance on the Emperor, as well as by Monsieur Emille Ollivier, Head of the Ministry. All parties and classes had resolved on war with Prussia, but, owing to the unpreparedness of the French Army, a delay in the date of the declaration of war was advised by the French Foreign Office. It was, indeed, also advised by Napoleon himself and some of his senior generals. Monsieur Thiers endeavoured to defer the commencement of hostilities solely on the grounds of it being premature to attack at this juncture ; however, he strongly advocated an early date for commencing hostilities as essential to the safety of France. It was hoped that French diplomacy would be able to gain time by averting an actual collision between the oppos- ing armies, and so, at least, bring about the neutrality of Austria, Italy, and even some of the southern States of Germany. The French were terribly disappointed at Bavaria joining Prussia, as the latter kingdom had been regarded by some as a possible French ally. The Emperor, however, was forced by public opinion, and by the fear of being driven off his throne, to declare war, regardless of whether his army was fit to take the field or not. My father's connection with the campaign arose in the following manner : A group of Indian and other newspapers decided to WAR CLOUDS 43 have an expert writer as a correspondent of their own, and to attach him to one of the French Army Corps. Under the regulations, such a correspondent must be un officier de carriere on the Active List, and wear the uniform of his rank in the army to which he belonged. These restrictions favoured my father's chance, and he was selected as war correspondent. My father and I left London in the forenoon of the 1 9th July, 1870. Arriving in Paris after an uneventful journey, we called on a Count Walsh de Serrant, at No. 7, Rue de la Baume. He was very kind, and gave us a letter to Marshal Canrobert, commanding the 6th French Army Corps, whom he knew intimately. Even with Count Walsh's personal assistance, my father had not been able to purchase a riding-horse in Paris, and his search for a couple of chargers revealed that the Government had impounded every serviceable animal in all parts of France. At Marshal Canrobert's headquarters we were politely interviewed by a senior staff officer. He examined our papers and found them en reg/e, and sent them to the Marshal, who received us a few minutes later. The Marshal and my father (who wore his British captain's uniform) saluted each other in the most correct military manner, and the Marshal directed his chief-of-staffto assist my father in every way. At Chalons we then discovered the servant of a Mexican attache willing to sell a horse for two thousand francs. My father agreed to pay that sum if the servant would throw in the saddle and horse equipment. My father was thus ready to take the field, but I was still without a mount. Eventually, however, we found a farmer's wife who had a donkey -chaise, in which she used to take fruit, vegetables, and eggs to market. Her garden and stores had been wrecked by the remount parties quartered on the farm, and she had therefore now no occupation. Her husband, a weak old man, was unable to work and had left the farm, with his married daughter, leaving his wife without food or money to shift for herself. Suzanne, the farmer's wife, was in great tribulation at 44 UNDER THE FLAG the breaking-up of her home, and feared starvation this last a condition shared by many of her neighbours. My father suggested that she should sell us her chaise and donkey and enter our service. She could look after our chaise and traps, and do any job required of her, we undertaking to share our food with her, and give her a weekly wage of twenty francs. This arrangement met with her approval, and she then sold the chaise and the donkey to us for five hundred francs, and expressed her willingness to start off with us in a couple of hours. I remained at the farm, and my father, being now mounted, went off, ready to march to the eastward with an advance guard of Marshal Canrobert's cuirassiers. My father could give me no definite instructions, but told me to move in the direct line for Saarbriicken, where the French douaniers, on the i9th July, 1870, had fired the first shots of the war. Suzanne either gave the money she had received from me to her husband or had buried it. I was afraid to let her out of my sight, so waited until she was ready to start for Chalons, where I returned to the quarters we had taken at a small hotel. After an early breakfast on the 24th July, I paid the hotel bill and drew some more cash, in small gold pieces, from the agents of my father's bank. I gave Suzanne some money to buy oats for the moke and to load the chaise with a fortnight's provisions for ourselves, as we were unlikely to find any for sale as we advanced to the eastward. Her arrangements showed that she was an excellent, thoughtful, and economical caterer. Since my father had left Paris he had written several articles and three news-letters for the Press. He gave me these papers with instructions to make two copies of each, one of them to be posted to India and the other to London. As I had to copy these papers before leaving Chalons, I commenced them as soon as possible, partaking of coffee and rolls and butter while so employed. The trouble was how to get off similar papers in the future. My father said if he could not deliver them to me he would get the British military attache to include them in his bag for London, WAR CLOUDS 45 addressed to Mrs. Walsh, and she would distribute and attend to them. This course eventually he had to adopt. On the 28th July I was still in search of my father, but could get no information regarding the where- abouts of the cuirassier regiment to which he was attached. On the 3oth July I heard that a French attack on Saar- briicken had failed, and that the French had deemed it prudent to retire to their own side of the frontier. The evening of the same day I found my father encamped with a party of cuirassiers three miles on the French side of the frontier. My father was delighted to see me, and we related to each other our adventures since we had parted at Chalons. He had with him eight articles to be copied and sent off to India and to London. These he handed to me, and I was fortunate enough to find a stationer, from whom I bought paper, pens, and ink. The stationer very courteously permitted me to copy my father's papers on his premises, which kept me pen-in-hand for eight hours. After I had finished my father's articles I saw him for a few minutes. "A German invasion of France," he told me, "is certain within the next week or ten days. The moment you hear of an important French defeat, leave the frontier at once. Don't on any account stop to see the fighting. Make direct for La Chapelle and then to Laon don't return to Chalons. If the French fail to stem the German invasion, pay off Suzanne, give her the chaise and donkey, and make for England." On the 4th August guns and ammunition passed me, on their way across the frontier, and others to join artillery units on the French side. About 6 p.m. the same day I heard that the Crown Prince had defeated Marshal Frossard at Wissemburg and Gelsberg, and had actually crossed the French boundary. No one believed this report. On the 5th August, however, the Frossard defeat was confirmed, and also the report that General Douay had been killed in action. From what I saw, my father's prediction was coming true, and, as I did not desire to be overtaken by the Germans, it seemed prudent to leave the vicinity of the frontier. On the yth August some French infantry halted 46 UNDER THE FLAG near my bivouac, and I at once presented myself to the officer in command. I explained who and what I was and how I came to be there; and that until I could obtain some authentic news as to the movements of the German and French Armies I thought it prudent to remain where I was. This officer was very polite and kind, and I invited him to breakfast with me in my donkey-chaise. At first he said that he had not the time, as he had to march without delay on Rheims so soon as his men had partaken of their morning meal. He consented, however, to view my equipage, which was only about 300 yards from where we stood talking. On our arrival Suzanne welcomed him with la reverence due to Monsieur le Colonel, and at once announced that she had prepared an "omelette" for him. Alluding, then, to me, she expressed her astonishment that my parents allowed un petit enfant comme lui courir tout seul\ but, mon Colonel, she added, no one interferes with, or restricts the movements of ce brave enfant. I was at the time 14! years old, and did not consider myself in any way or sense "un enfant". I think my six weeks on the French frontier, in daily contact with the soldiers of France, both officers and men, widened my mind and increased my knowledge of the world ; and in that respect I was in advance of an English-brought-up lad of my own age. I had told Suzanne that if she was questioned about me she was to reply : "He is English. His father is an officer of the British Army and a war correspondent attached with Marshal Canrobert's consent to the cuiras- siers and now at the Front." I wanted mon Colonel to know my position, and to derive that information from Suzanne. We gave mon Colonel a good breakfast and a bottle of excellent red wine. He rose to go, and thanked me for my hospitality to him, observing that my entrer en compagne must have given me many pleasant experiences and an insight into the conditions of French military affairs on the Haute Marne. As he mounted his horse he said : "If you go to Rheims, make inquiries for me." I wrote on the jth August, telling my father that I was starting to the westward in accordance with his WAR CLOUDS 47 orders, and would hang about as long as I could avoid the Germans. But the French postal arrangements had broken down, and letters directed to the care of the Chief of Staff of the 6th Corps d'Arme'e never reached him. I then asked H.M. Embassy to put a letter addressed to my father in the bag sent to the British officer attached to the 6th Army Corps. That letter, however, only reached him after he had severed his connection with the French Army. Not knowing what to do in the absence of all communi- cation with my father, I went on to Rheims, partly on foot and partly in the donkey-chaise with Suzanne. There I szwffton Colonel again, and he entertained me very hospitably. I left Rheims on the 23rd August, a few hours before Marshal MacMahon arrived there to dispatch his army to the eastward. Together with Suzanne and the donkey-chaise, I took the road for Laon, distant about thirty-five miles by road. We travelled by easy stages, and arrived there safely without mishap or hindrance of any kind. On the 2nd September I discharged Suzanne and gave her the donkey and chaise. She was delighted with the way in which she had been treated, but decided not to return to Chalons until the Germans had left that town and district. My adventures were over, and I arrived back in London on the jth September, 1870. There I heard of Napoleon's surrender, and of the establish- ment of a Military Government for the defence of Paris. After paying a short visit to recount my adventures to my guardian, Colonel Stather, at Woodchester, I returned to Cowley College. I was warmly welcomed by the Rev. Mr. England, my friend and class-master ; also by the Rev. J. G. Watts, the head master and chaplain, and Mr. Herman, the principal. They all congratulated me on what I had seen and on the way I had taken care of myself. My father was not present at the surrender of Napoleon at Sedan on the 3rd September, 1870. He had remained with the cuirassier regiment, whose fortunes he had followed since being attached to that corps at Chalons on the 23rd July the same year. The French Armies were driven back, and a Republican Government was established at Paris on the 4th September, 1870. My father asked 48 UNDER THE FLAG that the permits and papers accrediting him to the Imperial Government of France should be recognized by the Republican Government and their officers in the field, but his request was refused, and he ceased to be a war correspondent with the French Army. Having thus been forcibly ousted from that post, he crossed over the German frontier with his horse and made his way through Luxem- bourg and Belgium to England, where he arrived on September the izth. CHAPTER VII BOMBAY ON my return from France and my adventurous war-time experiences I found it very difficult to settle down to the ordinary routine of Cowley College. My class-master, Mr. England, continued to take a great interest in my studies, and wanted me to gain a "place" in the college examinations. This, thanks to his coaching, I succeeded in doing. I did a great deal of boating from Sandford Lock, and frequently went to Abingdon and Newnham Harcourt. The rector and owner of the latter property, the Reverend William Vernon Harcourt, was always most hospitable to all Cowley boys, and we used to leave our boats at the "Fisherman's Rest", a small inn at the bend of the Thames, and have tea at his residence in Newnham Park. I had a Rob Roy canoe, fitted with a centre-board and a bilge-piece, and spent a good deal of my time in learning to manage and sail my little craft. The practice thus gained was of great service to me later on the freshwater canals in Egypt. Late in September 1871 1 fell into the lock at Sandford, and in spite of my wet clothes sailed my Rob Roy canoe on to Abingdon. By that folly I caught a terrible chill, cold, and cough. The latter settled on my chest, and brought on inflammation of the lungs. I spent a full month in bed, and the school doctor became anxious about my condition. Finally, in consultation with another practi- tioner, he decided that I should be sent home and taken to the South of Europe. On my arrival in London, my father took me to a specialist, who advised my leaving England for the winter months. My father agreed, but said that he was start- ing for Bombay on the iyth November, 1871, and 49 50 UNDER THE FLAG consequently there was no time to arrange to whose care I should be sent. On hearing that, the specialist said : "Take the boy to the East with you. The sea voyage to India, and the climate of the western coast of India, will restore him to health sooner and better than if he went to Italy or anywhere in Southern Europe." I was at this time 15 years, 8^ months old. My father and I arrived in Bombay early in the morning of the zist December, 1871. After breakfast, my father, wearing a white uniform, called to autograph the arrival book at the Brigade Office in the Town Hall, Elphinstone Circle. He sent his card to the Brigade Major, who greeted him cordially and handed him a note from the Governor of Bombay, Sir Seymour Fitzgerald. This note directed my father to go at once to Government House, Parel. Major Karslake said : "The Chief also desires to see you some time to-day. As you are encamped within a few yards of the Cooperage, call on his military secretary on your return from Parel. You could, I think, arrange to get an interview at about 4 p.m." We then left the Town Hall, and were about to step into our hired buggy when a footman announced that Sir Albert Sassoon, of Sans Souci, Byculla, had placed his carriage at Major Walsh's service. We drove off, therefore, in grand style to interview His Excellency the Governor. On reaching Parel, my father and I both autographed the Government House callers' book. An A.D.C. received us, and he was told to acquaint Sir Seymour Fitzgerald that Major Walsh sought an interview. The A.D.C. returned in a few minutes to say that His Excellency would receive Major Walsh at once, and we were conducted to the library, where Sir Seymour awaited us, seated at his desk. Sir Seymour got up and greeted my father warmly. "I am afraid," he said, "you consider that I treated you badly. You were not sent to Abyssinia to command the transport train, nor to carry out the scheme which you had drawn up, after it had received the approval of the Commander-in-Chief, Bombay. But it was not possible BOMBAY 51 to write to you officially, explaining the cause of the unfair treatment and ill-usage meted out to you. In the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief and myself, however, it is only just and fair to tell you the position in which we were placed. The Government of India insisted that the transport arrangements for Abyssinia should be placed under the command of an officer of the Bengal Transport Department. The Chief wrote to me on the subject, and I sent on his letter asking for a reconsideration of the orders of the Bengal military authorities. I urged that to pass you over was an injustice ; also that it was against the wishes of the Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, who had selected you for the duty in question, and had accepted the scheme you had drawn up. The Military Department of the Government of India, however, would not listen to our representations made in your favour. Later you took furlough, and started off "on your own" as a volunteer to Abyssinia, but the Chief told me that when you turned up there he had not any post vacant which he could offer you. The Commander-in-Chief asked me to see that you received official credit for your scheme, which was successfully adopted during the campaign. And this I have done." Sir Seymour added : "I also took care that in the official history of the war your scheme was quoted in full ; and that it was placed in extenso with the official compilations of the war in Abyssinia, recorded by the Bombay Military Department." Sir Seymour then went on to say : "In the foregoing circumstances, you ought to receive compensation for the loss and hardship inflicted on you. It is therefore a pleasure to me to offer you an important and lucrative post which you can hold for over three years. A minor native prince needs a guardian personally to supervise his education, to teach him to ride and shoot, and to impart to him the ideas and culture of an English gentleman. You are particularly fitted for these duties, and you will have a competent staff of European and native teachers to assist you. The Prince's State will be under your direct administration as the British officer resident at his Court, and not in any way under the control of a British political 5 i UNDER THE FLAG agent or a commissioner of a presidential division. The monthly salary is fifteen hundred rupees, with residence and everything found, as well as a travelling allowance of two hundred rupees per mensem." My father warmly thanked Sir Seymour for this very handsome offer, the acceptance of which he had very reluctantly to decline. His Excellency, however, did not seem surprised, and said : "You are not personally acquain- ted with the present Commander-in-Chief, but he knows all about you. He told me that you had specially applied to him for regimental service, which he was prepared to give you at once ; he also remarked that he wished it was in his power to appoint younger men with the up-to-date ideas and knowledge you possess to the command of native infantry battalions. In his own words, 'Walsh has made a study of his profession, as can be seen by his accounts of the battles, manoeuvres, and tactics of the 6th and 2nd French Army Corps under Marshals Canrobert and Frossard/ I have read," Sir Seymour said, "with great interest your experiences on the Marne during the campaign of 1870." My father then explained his position by saying : "I am a soldier, sir, and under the present regulations I shall render myself ineligible for appointment as commandant of a battalion if I have not 'put in' three years' continuous regimental service. Thus, with nearly five years of absence from a regiment, I cannot, in the ordinary course, join any corps. However, since the Commander-in-Chief has in my special case abrogated that rule, that difficulty is gone. In these circumstances I trust that your Excellency will understand the reasons which have compelled me to decline your offer of political employment in a department in which I should like to serve, and the pay of which post would be very acceptable after three years on half-pay. My ambition and desire is to get command of a regiment, qualify for a brigade, and finish up as a general of division on the Bombay Military Establishment. And to make that career possible of attainment, it is essential for me to join a regiment at once." Sir Seymour observed : "With those views and aims BOMBAY 53 you have adopted the right course, and I understand that, after having served for one year with a battalion, you would be glad to get a civil appointment. Unfortunately, my term as Governor of this Presidency ceases in May next, so I shall not be here to help you obtain a well-paid position under the Civil Government. I will leave on record my appreciation of your services and claims, and will personally and officially urge my successor to recognize and reward them. I had hoped to get another Governorship, but the Prime Minister has requested me to obtain a seat in the House of Commons as soon as possible, and I have already asked my former constituents at Horsham to return me as the Member for that Borough." During the interview between Sir Seymour and my father I sat as an attentive listener. At the end, Sir Seymour, turning towards me, said to my father : "Your boy, Walsh, eh ? I suppose you want his appointment to the Bombay District Police ; a very good Service, and as in future it is not to be officered by men of the Indian Army, it offers a splendid career for a youngster who can shoot, ride, and hold a hog-spear. The Forest Department is also an excellent Service, but it appears to me that the India Office intends to pass over locally appointed men in favour of candidates trained at the various Forest schools in France and Germany." My father thanked Sir Seymour, and explained that he was sending me back to England now that I had recovered my health, to have me "coached" for the Army Competitive Examination, which new scheme had lately been introduced. Whereupon Sir Seymour, speak- ing to me, said : "Your father is taking the best course for your career in life. My experience is that if a man takes any office under the Government of India, he should belong to one of the covenanted Services. Your age would render it difficult for me to appoint you to one of the local uncovenanted Services, so I wish you success at the examination." My father told Sir Seymour that on second thoughts he thought it would be prudent to have my name down for the Police. Sir Seymour replied : "It will be quite useless 54 UNDER THE FLAG to do so, as the new Governor will tear up his predecessor's list of candidates. But I can do better than that. If your son applies for appointment to the Police, and urges the claims of his family for employment in this Presidency, I will, on public grounds, recognize them and appoint him substantively to the second or third Police vacancy which occurs." Sir Seymour then sent for his son, who was also his private secretary, and directed him to write to me officially in the above sense. I hoped that, with this pros- pect in view, my father would not send me back to school in England ; and Doctor Rogers, the Presidency surgeon, recommended that I should remain in India for at least another six months before being exposed to the winter rigours of the climate in England. Sir Seymour asked us to stay to lunch, observing that if my father went direct from Parel to the Cooperage he would catch the Commander-in-Chief before the latter had closed his office. We left Government House, therefore, shortly after lunch, and my father dropped me at our tents before going on to his interview with the Commander-in- Chief. On inquiring from the Military Secretary, my father was told that the Commander-in-Chief would see him at once. My father explained to the Chief his reasons for seeking immediate regimental employment. His Excellency replied : "You are on twenty-one days 'joining time leave'. If you cancel that leave, I will attach you at once to the i9th Native Infantry now in Bombay. I may tell you con- fidentially that the Commandant goes on furlough shortly, for six months at least, with, I think, the intention of extending it, as he could do, up to two years. In that case, if you are de facto attached to the i9th N.L, you would as a matter of seniority succeed to the command, and retain that position until someone senior to you was appointed by me to that temporary vacancy. Moreover, as he has only applied for short leave, I am not likely to disturb you." This arrangement suited my father's plans and require- ments, and he announced them to us when we were having tea in the canaught of the tent. There my uncle, Captain BOMBAY 55 W. P. Walshe, was also seated, and on seeing me he said : "Put on your flannels and bring your cricket bag." The latter contained a couple of good bats, a pair of pads, and indiarubber finger-protected gloves. I was then taken to the Bombay Gymkhana located in one large tent and several smaller ones, pitched on the Maidan and close to the statue of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria. My uncle got me made a member of the Bombay Gymkhana. In those days (1871) the permanent club house which now exists had not been built. I was intro- duced to several members, and W. A. Baker, manager of the National Bank of India, went to the net for a spell. He was not wearing gloves or pads, and before bowling I called out to him : "Round arm, fast." Now the unfor- tunate feature of my bowling was that, though very swift and well pitched for length, it was frequently wide to the offside of the wicket. I sent up several ill-directed balls with that defect, and I suppose that they must have annoyed Baker. At any rate, he shouted out to me : "Throw your balls at the wicket 1" My next two balls were dead on the wicket, but passed just above the bails and were very difficult to play. The third ball was very fast and broke Baker's thumb. I was in no way to blame for this mishap, and expressed my sincere sorrow at his misfortune. Curiously enough, we became and remained great friends until his death many years after in London, where he was managing director of the National Bank of India in Bishops- gate Street. I played cricket regularly, and soon got acquainted with the members of the Gymkhana. Although my form did not warrant my inclusion in any of the elevens, yet, as many men could not get away from their offices to attend matches played up-country, or could not afford the expense of day or week-end trips by rail for that purpose, I frequently played for the Gymkhana at Almedabad, Colaba, Surat, Poona, Kirkee, and other Mofusil towns. This was a very enjoyable way of seeing the country. And as I was gener- ally "put up" wherever I stopped, I met many pleasant people, with whom I often got a few days' shooting, and 5 6 UNDER THE FLAG occasionally a "mount" to pursue with spear the "mighty boar". My father, on learning that he would be attached to the 1 9th Native Infantry in Bombay, purchased an Arab horse which had never been trained. He had already a lovely docile animal for Mrs. Walsh, and a pair of "crocks" for the landau, which he had brought out from England. He had therefore to procure a charger capable of carrying seventeen stone, which was his total riding weight with "all up". An Arab, or Cape horse, up to that weight is very rare and expensive, and such an animal was not then on the Bombay market. He was thus compelled to purchase a "waler", which stood over seventeen hands nigh and was a wicked, vicious beast. The first trouble was to get on the back of this wild Australian brute, and then to be able to remain there. This waler objected to any rider, and tried to get rid of his burden by plunging in the air, doubling his back like a cat and simultaneously kicking like a donkey. I endeav- oured to "stick on" during these antics, but, much to my chagrin, was easily flung off. The Australian rough- rider, generally called a larrikin, who had come to Bombay with a batch of unbroken horses, told me that this particular horse had thrown him out of the saddle on several occasions. At last, however, the rough-rider had devised a means of sitting this beast, despite all efforts to dismount him. On my eagerly asking to be shown this device, he proceeded to place a rope under the horse's belly, with a loop close to the crupper end of the saddle, and another rope to the withers inside the forelegs, with a loop adjoin- ing the pommel of the saddle. He then manoeuvred the horse under the bough of a tree, dropped from it into the saddle, and with each hand seized one of the loops. He had a flexible cane attached to his wrist, and wore a pair of sharp heavy spurs. The horse kicked, plunged, danced on two legs, curled his back, breaking the girths of the saddle, but could not get rid of his rider, who flogged and spurred him unmercifully, until the brute became tame and docile by exhaustion. My father observed that, with proper handling and BOMBAY 57 training, he felt certain this waler could become a suitable charger for a man of his weight. The question was, who was to "break in" this redoubtable quadruped ? The seller asked Rs. 700, and to make delivery on the spot; but my father tendered Rs. 600, with delivery at his camp in the Strangers Lines Fort, and all the horse's gear and fittings, including the set of ropes with which the animal had been controlled. The offer was accepted, and the arrival of this waler with such an evil reputation caused Mrs. Walsh considerable anxiety. She did all she could to persuade her husband not to mount the horse until it had been cured of its vices and thoroughly trained. My father ordered the horse to be saddled and taken the next morning on to the firm sand in Back Bay, opposite the Cooperage. It struck me that I might, unknown to any- one, render the waler manageable before my father got on the brute's back. Shortly before five o'clock, therefore, I had the waler saddled and equipped under my personal supervision, in the same way in which the animal had last been ridden by the larrikin. The beast was then conducted over the railway metals into Back Bay, where after con- siderable exertion I managed to scramble into the saddle. I fully expected the waler to plunge, kick, walk on his hind legs and do his best to throw me off; instead, he simply ran away with me. Such behaviour did not disturb me, as the beach was clear for about four miles and the going as level as a billiard table. I allowed him to "keep his head", and did not attempt to check his speed until we got nearly to the foot of Malabar Hill. There I guided my "runaway" to the left, so as to get all the available width for turning round. This induced the animal voluntarily to slacken his pace, but made him exhibit several pranks in his efforts to get rid of his rider. I met those tactics by application of the whip and spur, and forced the animal at his top speed back towards the Cooperage. It appeared to me that there was still a lot of the spice of the devil left in this "waler from under the Southern Cross", and so, much against his inclination, I raced him back as far as the burning-ground for dead Hindoos. He had thus travelled at a great pace for over 5 8 UNDER THE FLAG eight miles, and now showed exhaustion and docility. For this I was truly grateful, as I myself was nearly dead with fatigue. My subdued steed carried me to our encampment, and there I handed him over to my father's rough-rider, Charbuk Sowar (literally 'a horseman with a whip'), who put on a couple of syces to rub the horse down and remove all traces of that morning's exercise. At 9 a.m. the waler was brought to the entrance of the sleeping -tent, where my father had great difficulty in overcoming the horse's objec- tion to let him mount. After a sharp struggle, however, he got into the saddle, and found the animal had become fairly amenable to a heavily curbed bridle, spurs, and hunting-crop. Without doubt my father's great weight largely contributed towards his steed's comparatively quiet behaviour. This waler's manners and temper were never very dependable, and he constantly gave trouble for no apparent reason. Nevertheless, by careful methods and judgment my father rode this horse on parade for several years without any serious mishaps. When the Prince of Wales visited India in 1875, six field officers formed a guard of honour around the royal carriage. During the procession through the city of Bombay my father, being posted on the left-hand door, passed in full view of the Bombay Club on his well-known waler, and received a great ovation from the members seated on the veranda. A few years later this waler died, and Mr. Schenk, an American citizen, manager of the horse-drawn cars of the Bombay Tramway Co., had the animal stuffed and set up in the hall of the head tramway building on Colaba Causeway, where for many years it stood labelled as the charger ridden in the Royal Procession by Major T. Prendergast Walsh of the Bombay 1 9th Infantry. On one occasion the waler by his behaviour stood me in very good stead. Early one morning, in response to an invitation, I rode the animal to No. 141, Mabar Hill, the residence of the Honourable Mr. Justice L. Holyoak Bayley, a prime judge of the Bombay High Court. I found Mr. Bayley on the veranda of his bungalow, and BOMBAY 59 he asked me to come in and have some chota ha^ari. My steed would not approach the house, but plunged, kicked, and nearly caused me to ride over a gentleman seated in the drive sketching before an easel. I eventually managed to get off the horse's back, and made him fast with my steel rein to a tree. The man sketching turned out to be Sir Richard Temple, and on my being introduced to him he remarked that Mr. Bayley had told him of my desire for a Police appointment on the Frontier. Sir Richard then went on to say that, after seeing me manage an unruly horse, he could testify to my skill in equitation, and would also place on record that in his opinion I was specially fitted for employment on the Frontier in the Police Service of the Government of India. This was my first meeting with Sir Richard Temple, who later was my patron, and who elected me for the Indian Political Service. Sir Richard and Lady Temple were going by sea to Calcutta, and had arranged to land at Marma Goa to visit Old Goa. I also happened to be travelling as far as Ven- guria by the same coasting vessel. During this voyage I became more closely acquainted with Sir Richard, and I owed everything to this piece of good fortune. Some years later Sir Richard was appointed Governor of Bombay. In that position he became aware that I had for some years been a regular contributor to the local Press, and had frequently furnished the political authorities with useful information regarding the affairs and intrigues on both shores of the Red Sea littoral. This fact enabled Sir Richard to post me as an assistant political agent in Kathiawar. When doing so, however, he was mindful to remark that the Secretary of State would probably remove me from that office, as many of the competitive covenanted Civil Servants objected to the employment of an "outsider" in the ex- clusive preserve of the Indian Political Service. Sir Richard, nevertheless, wished me well, and said : "I shall have left India before you can be turned out, but if you are ejected, write to me and I will personally explain your claims to the Secretary of State. Your case will also be strongly supported by Sir Henry Rawlinson (formerly of your father's old regiment), and now a member of the 60 UNDER THE FLAG India Office Council. We will fight the matter out moreover, as I intend to enter Parliament, I shall be in a position to invite attention in the House of Commons to the absurdities of this ancient regulation, which restricts and curtails the freedom of the Government to select candidates for several offices under the Local and the Government of India." My father joined the i9th Native Infantry, and, having no appointment in the regiment, had practically nothing to do except garrison duties. On all possible occasions I accompanied my father to the places he had to visit, so I soon knew a good deal about the Land Defence and topography of the islands of Bombay. I was greatly amused by my father's method of bringing his knowledge of battalion drill up to date. He took several pairs of privates and gave the ends of a rope to be held by each of the two, by this means turning a pair into a com- pany. The Adjutant, Captain Wandby, said to my father : "Well, sir, you know more about battalion drill than any officer in the regiment, and I have grouped in your records the officially expressed opinion by several senior officers on that subject." My father replied : "That may be quite correct, but I want that fact to be known to my present officer commanding. I, of course, attend all the C.O.'s parades, but am practically a mere spectator. I want the C.O. to call me out to execute any manoeuvre he may direct me to do, and, if it is done to his satisfaction, to acquaint the Commander-in-Chief of my fitness to command a battalion." Colonel G. W. Price, Commandant of the 1 9th Regiment, readily complied with both of my father's requests. In the meantime I had been handed over to Captain Wandby, to be taught company drill and to practise musketry. Although I possessed a certificate of fitness from the Cowley College Cadet Corps, a little extra drill in the ranks with sepoys did me no harm, and I thereby got to know the native soldier. As my father was only drawing the bare pay of his rank, he declared that he must devote as much of his time as possible to writing for the Press. He estimated that the remuneration thereby gained would recoup him to a BOMBAY 61 great extent for his loss of staff or civil employment pay. He possessed a brass-bound box containing what he called his "portable library", which consisted of the following books : Webster's English Dictionary ; The Dictionary Appen- dix, by the Rev. Thesaurus ; Manders' Treasury of Knowledge ; Cruden's Concordance of the Bible ; Haydn's Dictionary of Dates ; a law lexicon ; Whitaker's Almanack ; The Queen's (Army) Regulations ; The British Army 'List Official ; an Indian Army List ; a Hindustani dictionary (Forbes'). Most of these he left to me, and are regarded by me as treasures. His library box was always left open on two chairs at the right- hand side of his writing-table, and he placed with it any book which he might have to review. Pen, ink, papers, rubber, and ink-eraser completed the box's equipment. My father was preparing an article for a home newspaper, when Mr. M. Maclean, proprietor and editor of the Bombay Gazette, drove up in a shigram (generally called a "Brandy- case on wheels") to the tent. Mr. Maclean said that H.E. the Governor had asked him to write a series of articles on the Slave Trade Treaty or Agreement with Zanzibar, which Sir Bartle Frere was endeavouring to negotiate with the Sultan of Zanzibar. My father asked Maclean if the Treaty had been actually ratified, or if its provisions were still in draft and under discussion. Maclean had no definite information on those points, but said that His Excellency would let him see, in confidence, some particulars which had come to his hand. Maclean added that there was a rumour that Sir Seymour Fitzgerald had appointed his son (afterwards Sir W. G. S. Vesey Fitzgerald, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., Political A.D.C. to the Secretary of State for India) to a new post in the Persian Gulf, to control the operation of the Slave Trade Treaty with Zanzibar and Muscat ; the Secretary of State, however, had declined to sanction the creation of such an office. My father replied to Maclean : "I could not write the articles you require, as I know nothing about Zanzibar, Muscat, and the slave trade. There are about 7,000 natives of India trading with Zanzibar, but it is commonly supposed that the Zanzibar slave trade is financed by native merchants from the Gujarat, Kathiawar, and Kutch 62 UNDER THE FLAG ports. I am personally acquainted with the heads of several large native firms who have agencies in Zanzibar ; and almost certainly the immense business carried on by them at the latter place does indirectly subsidize the dealers in slaves, who buy goods in Zanzibar and exchange them for slaves, which is often a cheaper and more effective method than capturing them by force of arms. No doubt if the slave trade (which includes the purchase and con- veyance of ivory to the coast) was stopped entirely, Gujarat merchants would lose the best market for the sale of their goods. There is a party at Zanzibar, chiefly Arabs, desirous of emancipating all slaves, in order to annoy the Sultan, whose slaves pick and collect the crops from the large pepper plantations owned by His Highness at Penn- baam and elsewhere. If slave labour could not be used for that purpose, the Sultan would be compelled to pay for coolies, or to give contracts for the collection of pepper. It is considered that if either course were adopted the farmers would make large profits and the Sultan would receive little or no revenue. This Zanzibar question, therefore, has many aspects and needs to be carefully studied." My father continued to the effect that, if he went into the matter, he could only do so by approaching the impor- tant merchants whom he knew, which would attract attention. He offered, however, to introduce me to the merchants in the ordinary way, and he could then easily pick up or extract their views on the subject. "I will send my son to see Shahabuddin and to investigate Sir Bartle Frere's proposals, and thus open communications with the secretary to Sir Bartle Frere's mission, who could easily supply full particulars." Mr. Maclean replied that he would talk the matter over with Faichnie, assistant editor of the Gazette, and then get him to discuss it with myself. Eventually, with the adoption of this course, I was invited to study and to write articles on the burning question of the day : the traffic in slaves on the East Coast of Africa, and the extent to which the merchants of western India were implicated. For several years I contributed to the Bombay Gazette and The Times of India, continuing to BOMBAY 63 do so right up till my appointment in 1 884 as Administrator at Berbera, Somaliland, which brought me officially into contact with the slave trade between the Gulf of Tajura and Turkish Arabia. I had to go over to the Gazette office three or four times a week to read the proofs of my father's articles, and often did not complete that work until two or three o'clock in the morning. As I generally had to wait idly until the articles were set up in type, I frequently filled in the spare time by helping Faichnie to read the proofs of contributions from the pen of Mrs. Kipling (the mother of Rudyard Kipling, and the wife of a drawing master at the School of Art) on Bombay society gossip ; also those of Colonel C. M. MacGregor, B.Sc. (whose sister Annie I married in 1891), on the defence of the Indian Frontier and the aims and advance of Russia in Central Asia. Both Mr. Martin Wood (editor of The Times of India} and Mr. Maclean used to employ me to write short paragraphs on the theatrical performances, concerts, public dinners, and entertainments occurring in Bombay. This was a most useful occupation, and incidentally kept me supplied with pocket money. It also introduced me at the early age of sixteen to the editors Wood, Maclean, Robert Knight (of the Statesman)^ and staff of the Press in the Bombay Presi- dency. After entering the Marine Postal Service between Bombay and Suez in 1873, I kept up my connection with all the newspapers published in Bombay, and contributed to them regularly on the following subjects : "The slave trade" ; 'The hardships borne by, and the injustice done to, the natives of British India making the pilgrimage to Mecca" ; "Treatment of British ships by the Suez Canal Company" ; "Egyptian quarantine regulations used to delay passage of British mails by rail through Egypt" ; "The dual control on the land of Pharaoh" ; "The Khedival debts" ; "The war between Egypt and Abyssinia" ; "The freshwater irrigational canals of the Delta fed by the Nile, and the small coast-traffic towed through some of those channels" ; "The efforts of Euro- pean Powers to get a footing on the shores of the Red Sea, and on those of the Gulf of Aden" ; "Political affairs 64 UNDER THE FLAG and intrigues on both littorals of the Red Sea" ; "Gordon in the Sudan" ; "Captain Richard Burton's mission to look for gold in Midian". My father, my uncle (Mr. W. P. Walsh), Maclean, and Grattan Geary (the editor of The Times of India) encouraged my "ink-slinging" inclinations ; and, looking back over a period of more than fifty years, I see clearly that such success as I have had during my humble career in the East was entirely due to my connection with the Press of western India, and to the high officials and others whose acquaintance I made in connection with my pen. CHAPTER VIII THE MUTINY INDIAN CIVIL SERVANTS I WOULD remind my readers that the Mutiny broke out at Meerut on the loth May, 1857, and as far as the native soldiers, as organized mutineers, were concerned, it was suppressed in the same year, or early in 1858. The troops and in- habitants of a few native states, notably Oude, were in rebellion against the British rule up to 1859, the date of the capture and execution of Tantia Topee. The Nana Sahib of Bithoor, the chief instigator of the Mutiny, and the murderer of our women and children at Cawnpore, successfully escaped capture, and was officially reported to have died in the Terai jungle, where he had taken refuge. The death of this notorious and treacherous scoundrel was not believed, and certainly natives deemed him to be living in disguise. In 1872 several fanatics in various parts of India, claiming to be the Nana Sahib, gave themselves up to the police, while another of them was arrested in Bombay, but at the inquiry it was proved definitely that he was not the infamous outlaw. I arrived in India, say, twelve years after India had been transferred to the Crown in 1858; consequently the majority of the officers of the Indian armies of that date had served in India during the Mutiny campaigns. Competi- tion for entrance into the covenanted Civil Service was introduced in November 1858; the latter recruits were styled "competition wallahs", and by reason of their being still juniors had not risen in 1872 to power and position in the covenanted Civil Service of India. The members of this service, who governed the country, had all come from Haileybury, and they looked down upon the newcomers as their social inferiors. As regards the first three batches of "competition wallahs", I saw no distinction between the new and the old Civil Servants in class or caste. Later 65 v 66 UNDER THE FLAG on, however, the difference was very obvious ; not only in their status, manners, and bearing, but also in their ideas. The "competition wallah" was simply and entirely a "trade unionist" attempting to dictate the policy of Government, and considered himself to be in all respects vastly superior to all military and uncovenanted servants of the Crown. A group of "competition wallahs" publicly attacked Sir Bartle Frere (who had himself been an Indian Civil Servant of the Haileybury brand) for the way in which he exercised his patronage. They claimed that under an Act of Parliament a Governor's power of selection of a candidate for certain important offices was restricted to his choosing a member of the covenanted Civil Service to fill them. Sir Bartle resented such dictation from Civil Servants under his jurisdiction or command, and dealt with the matter in an able and well-reasoned despatch, dated December 1864, to the Secretary of State for India. Nevertheless, claims of this nature were constantly cropping up, and with a weak-kneed or "civilian-ridden" governor caused serious trouble and embarrassment to the Govern- ment of the Presidency. When Sir Richard Temple became Governor of Bom- bay he appointed a Mr. G. H. R. Hart, an uncovenanted officer, to be his private secretary, so as not to have in his personal cabinet one of the Secretariat group of "trade unionists". This action was the first terrible blow Sir Richard levelled at the "competition wallah" combination. The latter became alarmed and organized an opposition to Sir Richard's policy ; especially since he had appointed me an Assistant Political Agent in Kathiawar. For this post they asserted that under the Regulations no uncovenanted officer was eligible, and they tried to prevent my joining it. But Sir Richard stood firm, and would not brook any dictation or interference with his patronage. I had there- fore to face and fight these opponents to my employment, and I was loyally supported by Sir Richard Temple, as well as Mr. E. W. Ravenscroft, C.S.I. (an old Haileybury Civil Servant in Bombay), and by Sir Henry Rawlinson, a member of the India Office Council in London. THE MUTINY INDIAN CIVIL SERVANTS 67 Although the "competition wallahs" pressed by all means in their power not to allow my appointment to the Political Service, yet many of them personally wished me well, and made several efforts to effect a settlement of my claims. With that object in view, I was offered a Presidency Magistracy, the Clerkship of the Court of Small Causes, Assistant-Commissionership in the Salt Department, and an Assistant-Superintendentship of Police, in a district where the Superintendent^was about to^take two years' furlough, which arrangement would at once make me an : Acting Superintendent. In point of mere pay, the emoluments of these offices were equal to, and in some instances exceeded, my pay as a political officer. Sir Richard Temple had appointed two other uncovenanted men to the Political Service, but the Secretariat got rid of both of them, these gentlemen taking offices in other Departments. I myself could easily have secured similar preferment and treatment, but on my father's advice I demanded reinstatement in the Political Service as my first and only compensation, and said that after my name had been published as a political officer in the Bombay Government Gazette I would con- sider any offer of transfer made to me. If, however, the Local Government did not reappoint me to the Political Department, I desired to place on record my intention of appeal to the Secretary of State, and if I failed to obtain redress at the hands of the latter, I purposed placing my case before Parliament, and even to lay it at the foot of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria's Throne. I could afford to hold out, as when ousted from the Political Department I reverted automatically to the Marine Postal Service, upon which Department I had been mindful to retain a lien. Mr. H. E. M. James (afterwards Sir Evan James, K.C.I.E.) had tried to keep me in the Postal Service, and proposed to count my "sea time" for seniority as a Superintendent of Post Offices, and then to give me the first acting or permanent vacancy as Deputy Postmaster- General. In point of pay and pecuniary prospects, the acceptance of this kind offer would have benefited me to a much greater extent than re-employment in the Political Service, or in any Department ; since in all of them, 68 UNDER THE FLAG salaries, in the early stages, were small and promotion very slow. I declined, however, any kind of advancement in the Indian Postal Department, whereupon Mr. James asked me why I did so. My reply was very simple, but it opened his eyes. I explained : "Suppose I became a postal official, it would probably be impossible, and certainly it would be difficult, to get elected to a club in Bombay, or even to one in an up-country station. Even pure-white European postal servants nearly all belong to the order of